In Shiawassee County, Project RED takes the form of a field trip for introducing second-graders to the fundamentals of agriculture. This year’s event took place Sept. 27 and saw more than 700 students attending from 30 classrooms and 10 schools across the county.
Waiting for them at the county fairgrounds were 20 different learning stations ready to share information about rabbits, horses, seed germination, soybeans, dairy, pizza, corn, hay and straw, goats, farm safety (taught by Perry FFA), water resources, sheep, Breakfast in the Barn, pigs, incubators, pumpkins, sugar beets, forestry, machinery and surrey rides.
Anticipating some congestion, planners wisely arranged three rows of the same stations so there was enough time for every group to visit every station. After about seven minutes at a station, each small group of students shuffled along to the next.
Shiawassee County Farm Bureau’s Promotion & Education Committee organizes the annual Project RED and this year supplied each participating teacher with subscriptions to the autumn FARM Crates.
Commodity group donations made it possible to also offer goody bags for teachers and students alike.
About 140 volunteers turned out to run the event, including help from FFA chapters in Laingsburg, Corunna, Perry, Byron and Ovid-Elsie.
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