It was a bluebird day for a greenhouse event.

On the lawn of Whitefish Middle School, the first Harvest Celebration unfolded last Tuesday with live music, cider pressing, fresh produce for sale, a salsa making competition and other activities to kick off fundraising efforts for the Whitefish High School Community Greenhouse Project.

The goal of the greenhouse project is to connect students with experiential learning of the food system, according to Whitefish High School Earth Sciences teacher Eric Sawtelle.

The high school hopes to purchase a 30-by-50-foot Matterhorn-style greenhouse from Rimol Greenhouse Systems, which would become an outdoor laboratory for students to study food production and extend Montana’s short growing season.

“Rich Atkinson is helping us raise funds for the Whitefish Community Greenhouse,” Sawtelle said.

Atkinson, a community philanthropist, is trying to get sponsors as he walks 3 miles every day.

Atkinson plans to cover 453 miles and has dubbed the walk “Older Man Walking,” styled after his “Old Man Walking,” campaign in 2009 to raise money for the Whitefish Performing Arts Center.

He began walking Sept. 29 and will celebrate his 75th birthday at the end of the walking campaign in February. Atkinson and his wife, Carol, also have pledged a $25,000 matching grant, which Sawtelle said was the reason for the Harvest Celebration.

“We have to match that,” Sawtelle said. “So this was an event to raise awareness.”

During Tuesday’s event, Whitefish High School freshman Ella Van Vlack was painting a pumpkin among other painted vegetables on a long strip of white paper. “Help us fill the greenhouse,” the mural declared. Van Vlack is part of the Freeflow Club, which helped organize the celebration.

“We’d like a greenhouse so we can start our own garden and donate to the food bank what we can’t eat at our own schools,” Van Vlack said. “It would also be a big help to the sciences and some English classes. Right now, we’re learning a lot about farms. The school wants us to have more hands-on projects with the block scheduling.”

Whitefish High School English teacher Nikki Reed said she is currently working with Sawtelle’s classes to teach an integrated course.

“We’re doing a farm tour tomorrow,” Reed said, who was operating a bake sale during the Harvest Celebration.

Whitefish resident and high school parent Christy Toohey stopped to offer Reed her support of the greenhouse project.

“I’d love to support your greenhouse and I’d love to support your garden,” said Toohey, who recently moved from Paoli, Colo. “We did a lot of farming and gardening.”

At the event, people milled through a row of local farm stands selling fresh produce.

“We would like this to be an annual thing,” Sawtelle said. “If we get a greenhouse built, we’d have all of our produce here.”

One of the event highlights was a salsa-making competition that brought a steady stream of tasters and makers alike, including 10-year-old Tommye Kelly.

“I’m hoping to win,” Kelly said, smiling and naming off a list of ingredients she used. “I haven’t tasted it yet.”

Booths from the Glacier Institute and National Parks Conservation Association offered a look into things of a wild nature with pelt displays and a microscope 8-year-old Townsend Reed was peering into, inspecting a gnat.

“It’s moving,” Reed said, looking up with a grin.

The celebration was capped with an evening performance by high school and middle school choirs, a dramatic reading of “Where the Wild Things Are,” a sing-a-long and a slide show of 2002 Whitefish High School graduate Steven Gnam’s photography from the Crown of the Continent to commemorate 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act.

People may donate to the greenhouse project, or make pledges to Atkinson’s walk, through the Whitefish Community Foundation, 214 Second St. W., P.O. Box 1060, Whitefish, MT, 59937. Checks should be made payable to “Whitefish Community Foundation,” and in the memo note “WHS Greenhouse Project.”

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.