Scott Wiley had never thought about dyeing his mustache blue before a girl at Kalispell Middle School asked him if he would do it.

Wiley, a rancher from Musselshell, was visiting the school earlier this month as part of Provider Pals, a nationally recognized program that brings rural resource providers and urban children together.

Wiley has traveled with the Libby-based program to New York; Washington, D.C.; Minneapolis and Little Rock, Ark., but said there is something special about talking to children in his home state.

“Montana kids are the best there is, period,” he said. “These students were no exception to that — they were incredibly engaged.”

For many schoolchildren in the United States, there is a disconnect between the food they eat at their dinner tables and where it comes from, according to Provider Pals organizers. Many children don’t associate a working farmer with the corn on the cob on their plates.

Bruce Vincent, founder and executive director of Provider Pals, said the organization was a way of reaching out to both rural and urban populations.

“The biggest role I see Provider Pals playing is building bridges of understanding and respect between today’s youth and natural resource providers,” he said. “It’s not just a one-way bridge, either. In rural areas, people sometimes know very little about what it’s like to live in a city.”

Montanans don’t face this issue as much as many other states, since Montana is a large provider state. Big Sky Country still boasts a rural population, with farming, ranching and other resource production never far away. Montana’s children, by and large, have an idea where beef and lumber come from.

Sharon Applegate coordinated the Provider Pals visit to Kalispell Middle School.

“Here at the middle school in Kalispell, Montana, we are privileged enough to be close to our farmers, ranchers, miners and firefighters,” she said. “However when you hear about their work, their long hours and the risks they take every day to be such an important part of our economy, it is a whole new level of understanding.”

Provider Pals began as a pilot project in Libby in 1997. Since then, it has visited more than 300 classrooms and 8,000 children nationwide, largely in part to a grant from the Ford Motor Co. in 2002.

The local ties to Provider Pals made for a natural fit for several dozen youngsters at the middle school and it was an opportunity that the resource providers were more than happy to take advantage of.

Justin Downs, a farmer from Molt, realized the benefit of talking to middle school children.

“Farmers and ranchers have to be optimists and forward-lookers,” Downs said. “That’s why these kids and Provider Pals is so important, it is our future. Remember, if you eat, you support agriculture.”

The middle school youths got chances to ask these people questions about their lives, work and how something goes from seed to plate. The students waited in line outside after a day of classroom instruction to have one-on-one interactions with the providers.

Of course, not all the questions were about the farming or ranching. The last question Wiley fielded was from a boy who asked if he would ever consider shaving his mustache.

“Yes, the day after I dye it blue,” he laughed.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.