The new Eastern 4-H Environmental Education Conference Center is a step closer to getting a new cabin and a courtyard, thanks to a recent $250,000 pledge from BB&T.

The $10.5 million center, a picturesque year-round conference and training facility in Tyrrell County, is part of N.C. State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and its 4-H Youth Development Department. It opened last June.

The center’s 242-acre site is surrounded by forest and fields on three sides and Bull’s Bay on the fourth. It already has a dining facility with a kitchen and three dining areas, a conference center with a 250-seat meeting room and administrative wing, a multi-purpose music and education center with seating for up to 100, two teaching classrooms, two hotel-style executive lodges with 20 rooms, two dormitory-style group cabins and summer staff housing.

The BB&T gift will help fund Phase II of the Youth Cabins and Courtyard Area. Phase II includes six more cabins and two additional educational and technology centers.

—Art Latham