Youngsters get taste of farm life

The county’s Migrant Education Program moved its classroom outdoors yesterday when more than 40 kids learned how to care for farm animals during the third annual AgVentures Day Camp.

The camp was held at the Lebanon Valley Expo Center and sponsored by the Penn State Cooperative Extension’s Lebanon County office, in conjunction with the state Department of Agriculture.

The participants are children of local migrant farm workers, although as Martha Gregory, coordinator of 4-H and youth programs for the extension, pointed out, “For many of the kids, they are, at this point, pretty removed from the first-generation farming that many citizens of the county are still involved with.”

AgVentures is funded largely by a $2,500 grant from the Department of Agriculture, Gregory said.

Most of the campers, in grades 3-6, are students in the Lebanon School District. Even though AgVentures kicks off during summer vacation, weeks after school ended, Gregory said motivating the students to learn is not as challenging .

source: www.ldnews.com