Passing on the gift

By LINDA REDEFFER

Southeast Missourian

The Rev. Ann Mowery blessed a group of heifers before they headed to Louisiana last week.

Two bred heifers, raised on the Nothdurft farm, just outside of Gordonville, will help replenish the herds lost from last year's devastating Hurricane Katrina. The Nothdurft heifers joined six others from Sedalia, Mo., who also made the trip to Louisiana.

The animals were provided to the Washington Parish Small Scale Farmers project of Heifer Project International by the 2006 Festival of Sharing, held Oct. 21 in Sedalia.

The Festival of Sharing, now in its 25th year, is an interfaith statewide event that raises money for hunger, poverty and crises. Through the festival's efforts, six pregnant heifers began the trip to Louisiana, which detoured in Cape Girardeau, where two heifers joined the trip.

The heifers from the Festival of Sharing project were bred to calve in February or March. Bull calves born from these animals will be used to continue the herd development. They will bring prosperity and good quality cattle back to small Louisiana family farms in Franklington, La.

Mowery, pastor of Zion United Methodist Church in Gordonville, said three generations of Nothdurft farmers are members of Zion church, and have a long history with Heifer International.

"They got involved when Heifer International first got off the ground," Mowery said.

In 1975, Sylvester Nothdurft helped deliver a load of Holstein heifers, a Holstein bull and Hampshire hogs to Honduras. His son Paul and grandson Jeremie sent two heifers to help with the Katrina replenishment.

Zion Lutheran Church raised the money to buy one of the Nothdurfts' heifers, and Trinity Lutheran Church of Springfield, Mo., bought the other.

For the past 60 years, Heifer Project International, based in Little Rock, Ark., has provided livestock and training to families in need who, in turn, pass on the gift to others in their community.

The project began in the 1930s when a Midwestern farmer named Dan West was ladling out rations of milk to hungry children during the Spanish Civil War. He realized, "these children don't need a cup, they need a cow."

West returned home to form Heifers for Relief, dedicated to end hunger permanently. The effort provided families with livestock and training so they could take care of themselves, and go on to help others.

In 1944, the first shipment of 17 heifers left York, Pa., for Puerto Rico, going to families whose malnourished children had never tasted milk.

Each family receiving a heifer agrees to "pass on the gift," and donate the female offspring to another family, so the gift of food is never-ending.

Since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Heifer International has been busy helping 16 projects in Mississippi and Louisiana. According to Heifer International, nearly a fifth of program participants lost an animal to the storm.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160