Ag students ‘PALS’ to elementary children

Published:  Thursday, February 5, 2009 (1 year, 1 month ago)
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By STACY TAFF
The Delphos Herald

DELPHOS — Each month for a half hour a day, four days a week, Delphos FFA members head to Franklin Elementary to mentor kids on the importance of agriculture as part of the PALS program (Partners in Active Learning Support).
FFA Advisor and Ag Service Learning teacher Lucy Bambauer says the program is not only good for the elementary kids but helps the older students as well.
“These are Agricultural Business students so there isn’t a lot of opportunity for them to express their creative side on a daily basis. This program gives them the opportunity to do that,” said Bambauer. “There are nine students involved with PALS and a few of them are usually pretty shy and introverted here at school but when they get to the elementary school and interact with the children, they’re completely different. They have a lot of fun with it.”
In addition to empowering them, the program also serves to gratify the FFA students in a more well-rounded way.
“One thing that’s obvious when the students go to Franklin is that the kids are always very excited to see them. Even if they don’t do anything more than talk about agriculture with them, the children always have fun,” Bambauer said. “This makes it fun and exciting for the older kids who usually only have sports and academics to bring them gratification. Mentoring helps to make them into better role models.
“It’s very important for kids to realize how vital agriculture is as early as possible,” she continued. “They should be aware of how much hard work goes into a gallon of milk or a pizza. We’ll explain the processes to them and usually, we’ll pick our topics based on the time of year. For example, last October we talked about pumpkins. We brought some in and let them feel around inside them and explained how they grow. Then in November we talked about turkeys and one of the students, Dustin Nye, even dressed up as a turkey and explained a turkey’s life to the kids.”
It is the goal of the PALS program to give elementary kids a fun and enriching learning experience and to provide them with mentors to look up to.
“The FFA believes, and we believe, that if you can pair elementary children with positive mentors early on and give them the opportunity to learn just how important agriculture is, then it can be very good for them and therefore good for the future,”  Bambauer said.

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