Somerset County proclaims National Volunteer Week, highlights Rutgers Cooperative Extension volunteers

The Somerset County Board of County Commissioners proclaimed April 20–26, 2025 as National Volunteer Week and formally thanked Rutgers Cooperative Extension volunteers for their work in 4‑H, Master Gardener and other programs.

The proclamation described Rutgers Cooperative Extension as a unit of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers, The State University, providing research-based grants and technical assistance on agriculture, environment, natural-resource management, food safety, nutrition, health and youth development. The board cited volunteer contributions in 2024: 414 volunteers who contributed 7,657 hours (valued in the proclamation at a county estimate of $2,385,750.20); 240 4‑H volunteers who served more than 3,000 youth; 118 Rutgers Master Gardener volunteers; more than 40 environmental stewardship volunteers; and 16 family and community health services volunteers who contributed 305 hours.

Speakers from the Rutgers Cooperative Extension group addressed the commissioners. Jim Godier, who identified himself as president of the Forage Association in Somerset County, described volunteer impacts on youth development, saying, “when you have a kid come in who won’t even look up in the eye ... and a couple years later they’re standing up, they’re doing a presentation,” and thanked county leaders for support. Kate Brown, county agricultural agent, said the reach of Rutgers Cooperative Extension “would not be an iota of what it is without all of our volunteers.” Another volunteer encouraged residents to plant milkweed to support monarch butterflies; the meeting record includes the direct exhortation, “Plant milkweed.”

The board asked for a photo with the group and moved on to the rest of the agenda.