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By BETH CHAPMAN | Guest Columnist

Alabama’s Caleb Hicks was invited to the White House earlier this month to participate in the President’s annual Easter Egg Roll.

Hicks was not just invited to participate but was given a leadership role (no pun intended) in helping manage the egg hunt section of this event.

He and his fiancé, Katie Phillips, both worked the event and reported it was not only fun but the opportunity of a lifetime.

But it was more than fun for Hicks; it worked.

Hicks is the communications and membership director of the Alabama Egg and Poultry Association, which is responsible for, among other things, promoting Alabama’s billion-dollar poultry and egg industry.

The American Egg Board, which manages promotions for the egg industry in the U.S., invited about a dozen people from across the country, and due to his job, Hicks was one of them.

The White House Easter Egg Roll has been an annual event since 1878 when Rutherford B. Hayes was president.

Approximately 30,000 people attended the event this year. They were selected through a national lottery. American farmers donated 100,000 eggs to the event and to the Maryland Food Bank.

Hicks is quick to point out that Alabama does its part in the production of all things eggs and poultry.

Alabama’s egg and poultry industry has an annual economic impact of $15 billion in our state. We rank second nationally in broiler production.

It is responsible for 86,000 jobs and produces more than 1 billion birds each year. Out of the 1.7 million table egg laying hens, 500 million eggs are produced. That’s a whole lot of eggs.

Thank you to Hicks for representing our state and one of its largest industries at the biggest egg hunt of them all at the biggest house of them all. Keep Alabama relevant. Eat more poultry and eggs.