By Roberta Clayton
You are Invited!
You have probably seen the signs. There’s a barbecue in town at the clubhouse at 1812 Bass Lake Road. That’s where local gentlemen of the Needmore Ruritan Club in Fuquay-Varina have been feeding the nutritional, social, and service needs of our town for a quarter of a century.
The Needmore community itself is said to have come about in the early 20th century when the local store could not meet demand for some items neighbors wanted, and they would tell the owner, “We need more.” There is a considerably older Ruritan group at the unincorporated community of McCullers Crossroads, north on Route 401, where Ten-Ten crosses the highway. About 25 years ago, they took it upon themselves to help the family of an electrician who had died while working under a house. Their work inspired the folks from Fuquay-Varina, who learned from them how to set up a club and how to fund projects with the proceeds of a BBQ.
Our Ruritans are experts at what they do, and we are all invited to join them for a great southern meal and a chance to become better acquainted with our founding families.
Meals are served from 11a.m. till 7p.m. (or until the food runs out) on the second Friday in October and the second Friday in April. The fall menu is slow-cooked pulled pork with hush puppies, slaw, and red potatoes. The spring menu is half a chicken with potatoes, slaw, and bread. The price is $13 for a meal and a drink in the clubhouse, or $12 for a takeout box. I recommend the group dining option for the experience of meeting others and enjoying the fellowship. It’s hard to beat delicious food and a wonderful sense of history.
Parking and production facilities are across busy Bass Lake Road from the clubhouse, but local law enforcement officers are happy to work a shift helping people cross safely, as they anticipate a tasty meal. Look for the big red R on the side of the building by the parking spaces.
Speaking of which, what’s the story behind the R?
About Our Hosts
The R stands for Ruritan National, which is a service club originally located in small towns and rural areas in the US. Their aim is to achieve “Fellowship, Goodwill, and Community Service.” Local clubs are autonomous from the national organization and, therefore, select their own fundraising traditions and community service goals.
Warren Williams is the current president of the Needmore Ruritan Club in Fuquay-Varina, with Chris Abbott as the immediate past president, and Randy Davis, a former president, now serving as the district governor. These leaders juggle a busy schedule of church, family, employment, and community responsibilities. The club still has three of its founding members: Hugh Buchanan, Chet Hair, and Maurice (pronounced like Morris) Weaver.
Many Ruritan clubs sponsor local chapters of 4-H and the national Future Farmers of America, or help a troop of Boy Scouts of America, now called Scouting America. 4-H is a national youth development program, begun in 1902 and administered by the Cooperative Extension System under the United States Department of Agriculture. It provides young people with educational opportunities in agriculture, STEM, healthy living, family and consumer sciences, leadership, and civic involvement. The name refers to the development of four personal qualities: Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. 4-H creates opportunities for youth and adults to work together, and is the United States’ largest youth development organization, with over six million members.
Future Farmers of America works to grow the next generation of leaders who will change the world. The National FFA organization is an American nonprofit career and technical student organization, which offers middle and high school classes to promote agricultural education. It is the premier youth organization preparing members for leadership and careers in the science, business, and technology of agriculture.
Our hometown Ruritans always shared their values and the clubhouse itself with the ladies of the Extension Homemakers Association, now called the Extension Community Association. Ruritan club members believe the clubhouse was built in the 1930s, using government funding allotted for rural development and education through the Agricultural Extension Service. It was used for classes in food preparation and canning, along with other courses of helpful information. Later, in giving these facilities back to the rural communities, it was deeded over to the Needmore Homemakers Club and the Needmore Ruritan Club. The ladies made the clubhouse lovely, sewed the curtains, set up and decorated the Christmas tree, and contributed their group earnings to the building’s upkeep.
The cooking building across the road from the clubhouse was built and expanded by the Ruritan members. “It got to the point of needing new roofing and trusses,” Warren explained. “A lot of those materials have been donated, which is a blessing, but we’ve got to get out with a big lift and set those trusses in place. We work on a lot of things like that throughout the year, trying not to use too much money on it so we can better serve through our scholarships and keep fiscally sound and solvent.” He shared an example of men having recently cleared a septic tank line that had pine tree roots that needed to be cut and removed, adding, “You’ve got to make sure that kind of stuff is working.”
The Homemakers group dwindled over the last decade, leaving Faye Hair as the only one of the women still involved. She and her husband, Chet, now in his 80s, continue to play important roles in the semiannual BBQ projects.
A Long Night
Warren narrates the barbecue action.
“Tuesday about midnight you will find Hugh or Chet or Maurice lighting the fire. Arthur Johnson will specialize later in the preparation of the potatoes. By 2 a.m. Wednesday, the pork begins to cook on two grills that are probably six or seven feet wide and 35 feet long. You know, when you put a couple hundred shoulders, whatever that actual number is, or a couple hundred Boston butts on there, and you’re cooking it over wood, it’s amazing.
“Wednesday is another long day, as the meat is chopped, mixed, and shoveled into bins with dedicated shovels that are used only as kitchen tools. Then the prepared meat goes immediately into the chiller. Some dramatic photos of the operation have been published by the NC Pork Council. We have a furnace that was made out of the remnants of a battleship, probably, I don’t know, 40 years ago or so. We feed that with slabs of oak about every 15 minutes for seven or eight hours. It’s a true furnace. And then we shake it down and we pull the embers to go under those long grills. The pork is cooked over wood, and the chicken is cooked over a combination of wood and charcoal.”
Rewarding the Diligent
The barbecues are a delicious means to a charitable end. As Warren points out, “Our main focus is to give back to our community. We select projects and support programs that help local youth prepare for meaningful contributions to their home areas and family heritage. Our group has ongoing commitments to provide scholarship funding for local students to pursue any of a wide variety of trades. Most of them attend Wake Tech. From just a few awarded two years ago, we have increased our giving and currently have seven scholarships to present. All of them include Ruritan National matching funds from a program called Build Your Dollars. We then rounded up the amount, so each recipient has $1,000. All of the scholarships have stipulations, and we try to keep it very local. Often Wake Tech helps us by choosing the recipient. One award is specific to the Ransdell family, as they donate yearly, targeting family members. If you make a private donation, you can specify the requirements. The good students become familiar with the club and will be more likely to support it because they remember the funding. [In other examples], for a Scout group at Fuquay Methodist, we funded the supplies for an Eagle ceremony, which is no longer provided by Scouting America. We gave money to Fuquay High School’s FFA program. In return, they helped maintain our grounds.”
This year, Warren remembered back to the bicentennial celebration of our country on July 4, 1976. “I was nine years old, so it’s really neat to know the history of our club kind of coincides with our country’s celebrations.” Membership slowly declined, but it is on the rise again. “Right now, we have about 38 members. There is a youth who is greatly appreciated for his help lifting the 100-pound bins into the cooler.” Warren’s dad, Larry Williams, set the example. At 91, he was honored as the longest serving member of the Lions Club in the town of Dunn. Service is part of their family heritage.
The Needmore Ruritan Club holds monthly meetings, often including a meal. The wives especially enjoyed last year’s Christmas party, because everybody came out of the kitchen. The meal was catered! These hard-working neighbors appreciate and feel a kinship with our quarterly issues of Suburban Living Magazine. Both entities take pride in serving Fuquay-Varina.
For information, email pineboat@yahoo,com or check in with Needmore Ruritan Club on Facebook. Now, go add those BBQ dates to your calendar. You’ll be glad you did.
