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
del.icio.usdel.icio.usDiggDiggRedditRedditYahooMyWebYahooMyWebGoogleGoogleThese icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.What's this?
Youngsters get taste of farm life
By BEN HACKMAN
Staff Writer
Lebanon Daily News

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
Advertisement
as one might expect.

“It’s actually one of the goals of migrant education to continue to keep the kids learning throughout the summer, so we don’t have a learning gap between the school year and summer programming,” she said. “The goal of the summer program is to make learning fun. And the purpose of AgVentures, I think, coincides well with that in that it’s a very nonformal setting, and they’re learning but not feeling like they’re in a classroom.”

Circulating among five stations at half-hour intervals yesterday, the students got to experience first-hand a Shetland pony, a goat, chickens, ducks and dogs.

Andi Jones, 19, North Annville, introduced the children to Shadow, a 22-year-old Shetland pony whose shoulders were at or below eye level for most of the students. Jones explained how to care for a horse — from brushing and grooming to feeding and riding. The children asked Jones questions as they brushed Shadow’s mane and fed her cakes of grain and molasses.

“It’s a really good idea to have the (children) exposed to things,” Jones said, “because a lot of times they wouldn’t otherwise get to experience any of that.”

Shirley Marie Cartagena Torres said brushing the pony was the highlight of her day, a sentiment with which fellow fifth-graders Onix Rivera, Gabriela Torres and Jesus Rodriguez agreed.

Gregory had the help of nearly 40 volunteers, educators and chaperones.

“We have a number of extension educators, summer assistants and college students who are helping us, and then the presenters themselves are volunteers,” Gregory said. “Many are 4-H volunteer leaders who work with our traditional 4-H club program, and others are community individuals who represent different agencies.”

One such volunteer was Carol Klovensky, who represented the York County Chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“I’m trying to give the kids insight into how to care for pets and how to be safe around them,” Klovensky said before showing a group of a dozen students a video about pet care.

“All children should be exposed to animals — both indoors and outdoors — and I think they really need to know how to care for pets, if they have them,” she said. “The most important thing is to spay or neuter your pets.”

Klovensky’s assistant, Rachael Phillips, 22, of Palmyra introduced the youngsters to Tiffany, a 5-year-old Pomeranian, as part of a pet-care learning station.

“The students have been interested,” Phillips said. “They’re excited to see the animals. One asked, ‘Can I keep the dog?’”

Sixth-grader Yameli Colon was so interested to learn about dogs and how to care for them that she said she was thinking about getting another dog at home.

Nearby, brothers Dalton and Dylan Lape of South Lebanon presented several breeds of chickens and ducks.

“We’re talking about the basic parts of chickens, the differences between ducks and chickens, and how they incubate eggs,” said Dylan, 15, a Cedar Crest High School student. The Lapes said they were sharing what they had learned from more than five years of participating in 4-H.

At the opposite end of the hall, Brenda Keller and Amanda Jenkins of Union Township fielded questions about Ember, a small but loud 12-week-old Boer goat they own.

“The kids interacted really good,” Keller said. “They loved petting (the goat). They thought that was neat.”

AgVentures continues today with a visit to Strites’ Orchard, near Hummelstown.

“That will include taking a tour of the orchard,” Gregory said. “Children will be planting plants, picking cherries and learning about how a farm operation works at a very practical level.”

Tomorrow, the kids will get to see more animals up close at the Expo Center.

source: www.ldnews.com