Kids get creative with essays for Fifth-Grade Farm Tour

One never knows what might come from the opportunity for Holmes County’s fifth-grade students to experience the annual Tom Graham Fifth-Grade Farm Tour.

The annual winners of the essay contest that accompanies the annual visit to area farms at the Wachtel family’s Spring Walk Farm near Nashville and the Miller family’s One-O-One Ranch near Trail not only get a chance to hone their writing skills and explore the creative side of farm life and conservation, they may just end up finding their lot in life.

The essay and poster awards for the tour were doled out Nov. 20 at Carlisle Inn at Walnut Creek during the annual Holmes Soil & Water Conservation District meeting and banquet.

This year a group of knowledgeable adults were asked to read through the essays and pick the winning entries with each fifth-grade teacher submitting the top entries from their respective classes.

One committee member, John Lorson, who headed up the essay contest and presented the awards on banquet night, said it can be a life-changing experience for the kids.

In one way he was spot on. Years ago Carrie Elvey was a farm tour essay winner. Elvey grew up to cherish conservation and the great outdoors and now is a senior naturalist at The Wilderness Center near Wilmot. Lorson sent her a copy of the winning essay clipping they had dug up, and Elvey said the farm tour and winning the essay contest gave her an interest in natural resources that inspired her to pursue it as a career.

The annual farm tour grew to two farms this year as the SWCD got many of the county’s parochial schools involved for the first time. The tour was named after Tom Graham, a soil scientist and speaker who was engaged in the tour for many years, and each of the two events held earlier this fall included a number of different stations where the fifth-graders learned about soil conservation, forestry, farming practices, wildlife, farm safety, the dairy industry and more. Each student was then asked to write an essay about their experience.

“The best part about the farm tour is the friends and community members that pitch in and help,” said Jason Schuch, SWCD board member who helped present the winning essays and their young writers. “We have a lot of people to thank.”

Lorson said the committee really tried to challenge the students to be creative with their essays.

“We asked them to take the farm facts and weave them into an interesting story, and boy did we get some interesting stories,” Lorson said.

The top essay winners from the Tom Graham Fifth-Grade Conservation Farm Tour were honored along with the West Holmes and Hiland FFA poster winners, which is geared toward farm safety.

The winner of the essay contest was Jacob Hershberger from Walnut Creek Elementary with Parker Garver of Killbuck Elementary taking second and third place going to Charlie Cooper of Lakeville Elementary.

Cooper wrote his story from the view of a tractor.

“It was very interesting right from the get-go,” Lorson said of Cooper’s paper. “I think we all really enjoyed the way he wrapped his essay up.”

In that conclusion Cooper stayed in character as the tractor, writing, “Life on the farm really keeps everyone busy. Cows are fed three times a day and milked twice a day. Farm Curt and the workers plant many acres of crops. There is always work to be done on the farm, whether you’re driving a tractor, working or feeding cows, harvesting crops or repairing something that is broken. Our country could not survive without farms like Wachtel’s Spring Walk Farm.”

Garver fashioned his story from the perspective of the leader of the wood sprites, an inventive way to create a realm that would coexist on the farm from a fantasy standpoint.

“It was a great perspective because he was able to teach about the stations on the farm and teach the other younger wood sprites,” Lorson said. “It was an incredible essay, and it left us all with dropped jaws that kids this age can write like this.”

Garver’s story spoke about how the wood sprites need to choose wisely in the trees they choose to make their home. He taught the younger sprites about forestry and explored the facts about the types of trees in Ohio and the lumber that is produced in the Buckeye State on an annual basis.

“It was just a great job,” Lorson said.

Hershberger chose a truly unique path for his essay, seeing the tour through the eyes of an earthworm.

“This was the wildest ride of all,” Lorson said. “He chose to tell his story from the viewpoint of an earthworm, and he traveled about underground to all of the stations on the farm, teaching about the different stations. That was his plot. But the subplot was that his friends were slowly getting knocked off. Kids were stepping on them. Birds were eating them. It was all kinds of crazy stuff.”

Hershberger touched on farm safety and how water affects soil and the importance of cover crops, touching on each of the stops and their importance, even while adding humor by having his fellow worms bite the dust as the story played out.

A number of students also participated in the poster contest created by both the West Holmes and Hiland High School FFAs.

The officers from both of those schools came forward to award those winners with certificates and awards.

“Today we are here to recognize and congratulate the members who participated in the poster contest this year,” said Jamie Pennell, West Holmes FFA chapter student advisor. He noted that West Holmes received 61 poster entries this year.

WHHS FFA reporter Rebecca Sprang said the FFA helped serve as tour guides while also creating the informative and fun farm safety station.

The West Holmes FFA poster winner was Killbuck Elementary fifth-grader Devin Miller with Saige Krownapple of Clark Elementary taking second and Aiden Noe of Lakeville Elementary earning third.

The Hiland FFA poster winner was Jordan Miller of Winesburg Elementary with Brendan Yoder of Chestnut Ridge taking second and Paris Miller of Berlin Elementary earning third place.