The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Project RED brings farm and city together
By Edward Freundl, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 15, 2008
As modern society gets further from its agricultural roots, exactly how the food reaches our tables becomes more of a mystery.
Advertisement
Fortunately, Project RED (Rural Education Days) has been de-mystifying the process for Washtenaw County residents for the better part of two decades.
This year's edition took place April 23 to 25 at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds north of Saline.
Nancy Thelen, Washtenaw County MSU Extension director, said the program is a unique partnership that had humble beginnings, but has now grown to be a major event.
"Project RED is a tri-partnership with the Washtenaw Farm Council, Washtenaw County Farm Bureau and MSU Extension," Thelen said.
"Sue Huehl, me and Holly Porter stated this as a one-day event with 600 kids, and now we're at capacity — three days and 2,000 students, with another 550 teachers and chaperones."
Thelen added that the program is designed for third-grade students.
"Hopefully it's something that will catch on for the future," she said.
MSU Extension agricultural agent Mike Score explained that the purpose of the project was to give people from the city a chance to learn a little about life in the country.
"Most residents of Washtenaw County are non-farmers surrounded by agriculture; they don't have much experience with it," Score said.
"This is a 'temporary tour' of the farming community, and we focus on the most important aspects of agriculture."
Even though Project RED has been in existence for years, this was actually the first time the Chelsea School District took part.
"I got to see cows and farm animals I really love," said Colette Ackley, a third-grader at Pierce Lake Elementary.
"We heard about dirt and how it should stay in the ground and not wash away."
Colette was referring to a soil conservation and erosion prevention presentation by the Washtenaw County Conservation District, a USDA-funded program.
The Conservation District also brought in thousands of tree seedlings for one of its semiannual tree sales, a major fund-raiser.
One of the most popular presentations was given by retired MSU Extension agricultural agent Bill Ames, in costume and in character as the spittin' image of Abraham Lincoln.
His talk was the first that visitors encountered, introducing them to the program and giving them a good idea of the importance of agriculture to the state economy with his "Walk Through Michigan Agriculture" presentation.
Ames retired after 27 years with the Extension Service, and said this was his 19th year doing Project RED.
"Working with the kids is the best part," he said. "Kids are the future."
Using a large farm tractor, harvester and farm wagon as a backdrop, Score led a presentation focusing on one of the state's leading cash crops — corn — and its many uses.
"We have a lot of food sampling, because it helps them understand how much of their food comes from Michigan," Score said.
"The sessions during the day are really fun, we get to play around with the kids."
In his fifth year doing the presentation, Score said he talked to 27 groups of kids over the three-day event.
"The kids have fun with this," he added.
The groups were led from presentation to presentation by adult group leaders like Garrett Fischer of Dexter, a Cloverlear Lane 4H team leader now working for MSU Extension.
"I work on a dairy farm, and with this I get a chance to teach kids stuff they wouldn't normally learn," Fischer said.
"I did this myself when I was in third grade — the best part is walking around answering questions from the kids."
Another presentation that was a big hit were the animals brought in from different farms around the county so that the kids and adults could get a closer look and learn a little about how they are raised.
"My favorite was the llamas — I never petted a llama before, and I never held a chicken before," said Connor Cooke of Harvest Elementary in Saline.
"We got to eat a lot of stuff like ice cream, blueberries, raisins, and popcorn, and it was all made in Michigan. I didn't know so many things came from Michigan."
Jenna Kamarczyk, a student at Redner Elementary of Lincoln Consolidated Schools in Ypsilanti, said she learned some very important things.
"I liked seeing the baby chicks hatch and seeing a big cow getting ready to have a baby," she said.
"I learned there's all different kinds of cows; some are for beef, and some are for milk. I thought there were only milk cows."
Whether they were new to Project RED or old hands at it, even the teachers seemed to be enjoying themselves during the farm presentations.
"This was my 10th time; it's been the same every year but they've improved the students' involvement, said Jessica Stafford of Symons Elementary in Milan.
"For the most part, our kids in Milan don't see farming or he agricultural side of anything — they don't really think about where their milk comes from."
Stafford said the presentations reinforced some of the things she is teaching in her classroom such as recycling and groundwater preservation.
She also noted that the kids really learned a lot.
:I don't think the kids realized Michigan produced so many products," Stafford said.
"The kids enjoyed the different foods and the animals, and the soil conservation presentation was like an experiment we did."
This year was the first time Melissa Yekulis of Klager Elementary in Manchester attended project RED.
"It was a fantastic program, the things they presented to children and adults was very detailed, and it had a lot of excellent information," Yekulis said,
"The best part was how organized it was, and the quantity of information."
The teacher noted that, even though it's fairly late in the school year, it was the students' first field trip and they "loved it."
"For the kids their favorite part was eating food and the interaction with the animals," she said.
"It was, overall, just a well-done, exciting day."
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
TOP JOBS
