Down on the farm
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years AGO
Longview Elementary School first-grader Benjamin Medenwaldt makes the acquaintance of a rabbit at First Grade Farm Day Wednesday at the Grant County Fairgrounds.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Moses Lake High School student Colton Lucero helps first-grader Averie Talavera cast her line at Lucero’s display at First Grade Farm Day Wednesday. The presentation taught the children how to tell the difference between saltwater and freshwater fish.
Moses Lake High School students tell a group of first-graders about the role of tractors in farming at First Grade Farm Day at the Grant County Fairgrounds Wednesday.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | October 14, 2024 1:20 AM
MOSES LAKE — More than 500 children got a close-up look at agriculture Wednesday at First Grade Farm Day on Moses Lake.
“It really comes back to ag advocacy,” said Moses Lake High School ag teacher Tony Kern. “Even though we’re in an agricultural community, there’s fewer and fewer people who actually know where their food comes from, how it’s made, being around animals or even understanding the breadth of agriculture.”
Farm Day is a deep-rooted tradition in Moses Lake. Kern has taught at MLHS for 26 years, he said, and he thought the event went back at least another 20 years before that. There was some question whether it would happen this year, with the budget problems the Moses Lake School District is experiencing, but the parent-teacher organizations of the various elementary schools pulled it off, he said.
The event was split into a morning and an afternoon session, to alleviate the crowding in the Kenny Ardell Pavilion at the Grant County Fairgrounds. All but a couple of Moses Lake’s public elementary schools brought their classes, as well as Moses Lake Christian Academy.
The pavilion had 24 stations set up where kids would spend about five minutes learning about some aspect of agriculture, from animals to plants to tractors, as well as some slightly peripheral subjects like farming and rodeo. Time to rotate was indicated with an air horn. The J.R. Simplot truck was there as well with fresh, hot french fries.
“Being able to expose these kids to (agriculture), hopefully it gives them a better understanding of ‘Oh, my food doesn't just come from the grocery store or Mom making it. It's produced,'” Kern said. “And when you look out the window as you're driving out of town and you see those fields, that hopefully builds that connection.”
By far the most popular stops were the live animals, including chickens, goats and rabbits, in pens in the middle of the pavilion for easy petting access.
“They love the animals,” said Longview Elementary School teacher Donel Dalrymple. “Going to a corn presentation, that’s all good, but there’s no animals there. They’re listening, but if there’s animals, that’s when they’re really excited.”
One of those pens was a goat pen where MLHS student Ariel Montoya was tending the flock.
“I hear a lot of ‘Are they sheep?’” Montoya said. “(The kids) are also wanting to pet them, but they’re a little skittish sometimes.”
Over by the wall, Colton Lucero was teaching first-graders about fish, helping them cast little fishing poles over a cardboard wall.
“We have pictures of saltwater fish on the board and then I have pictures of freshwater fish on a paper that I show them,” Lucero said. “We get a couple of kids and let them use the fishing pole and catch a fish and a candy and then they get to tell me if they think (the fish) lives in the ocean or the lake.”
“For our high school kids, it's an amazing opportunity for them to present to in a high-reward, low-risk (situation), because their audience is first-graders,” Kern said. “So it's not like you're making a presentation to your teachers or other high school kids, where you feel like you have to have super in-depth knowledge. It's at a lower level, but the first graders are an antenna, and they will tell you if your message is hitting home or not.”
The proportion of the population that farms has dropped over the years, but Kern said seeing the students in his programs gives him some hope for the future.
“This is really a diverse group of presenters,” he said. “They're definitely not all from an ag background … We're trying to create that next generation of folks to go into agriculture, because as much as people might say this, that or the other thing, it's one field that is never going away, because everybody's got to eat. It is important, and it's exciting, and there's so many different opportunities.”
Moses Lake High School student Colton Lucero helps first-grader Averie Talavera cast her line at Lucero’s display at First Grade Farm Day on Wednesday. The presentation taught the children how to tell the difference between saltwater and freshwater fish.
Moses Lake High School students tell a group of first-graders about the role of tractors in farming at First Grade Farm Day at the Grant County Fairgrounds on Wednesday.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”