kids, animals mix on farm day

MOSES LAKE — “Who knows what a honeybee is?”

Tiny hands shoot into the air in response to Mackenzie Dodson’s question.

“They make honey!” several fist graders excitedly reply.

“And does anyone know how they do that?” Dodson asks?

“Flowers!” Some kids shout out, though as first graders, they aren’t entirely sure how flowers help bees make honey — something Dodson carefully explains to them.

Dodson, 16, is one of the 110 or so Moses Lake High School students giving presentations and helping to run Farm Day at the Grant County Fairgrounds.

“I don’t keep bees myself,” Dodson said between groups of first graders. “I’m with the FFA, and this is my project.”

Farm Day has been going on in Grant County “for as long as anyone can remember,” according to Tony Kern, FFA advisor and horticulture teacher at Moses Lake High School.

First graders from across the district get to learn not just about bees, but irrigation, chickens, eggs, cattle, and a number of other aspects of farm and outdoor life. They get the opportunity to pet and touch farm animals — something many of these children may never have done before.

“We want to expose these first graders to the agriculture around them,” Kern said. “Where their food comes from, how it’s grown, how it’s made. A lot of these kids have not been up close to a farm animal before.”

For the high school students manning each of the many stations in the fairgrounds pavilion, Kern said Farm Day is a tremendous opportunity for students to prepare and plan a public speech some of them will give almost 40 times in one day.

“They’ve really come through,” Kern said. They make me very proud.”