Bloomington High School South, The Gothic, 2010, Page 75

Description:	IIPeden Farm volunteer Holly Hays shared herexperience tAnyone who was part of a MonroeCounty Community SchoolCorporation as a kindergarteneror first grader remembers theirtrip to the Childrens FarmFestival held at Peden Farmevery year. Over a two-dayperiod, 2,000 children roamthrough the barns. Though I wasnever lucky enough to attend theFarm Festival as a young student,I have been very fortunate towork at the farm as a teenvolunteer on two occasions.On the way to the farm atwhat feels like the crack of dawn,there was always a feeling oftrepidation. At that point, its all amystery.I would soon arrive at thefarm and be placed to work at thehayrides, After a somewhat roughstart (one or two of the tractorsgot stuck in the mud) we got intoa groove that continued for therest of the day.There were baby chicks andducklings, cows, sheep, a mule, ahorse and various other stationsteaching about life on the farm.The butter churning and bio-fuelstations soon became thefavorites, but the hayride crowdremained somewhat constantuntil the end of the day.However, the second dayproved to be three times ashectic as the first. I hopped backeaching kids.onto the wagons with my trustyand sunscreen. On the secondday, we expected 1,500 kids at thefarm. We gave countless hayrides,answered millions of questionsand practically memorized thenotes given to us about the farm.Finally our lunch breakcame. Monroe Bank graciouslyprovided some of the best foodIve ever had while volunteering,Soon after we finished eating wewere back out on the tractors. Ithink this is when all of usreceived our farmers tans.By the end of the day wewere all exhausted. According toJoe Peden, owner of the farm, wegot the cleanup done in recordtime and were able to leaveshortly after our group picture.Squeeze in like you loveeach other! said the personholding the camera. We allsqueezed in, but it wasnt an act.Whether we were serving astour guides, or making sure thatthe kids didnt squeeze thepoultry to death, we all had anamazing time. Life on a farm isntjust like being on your own; youvegot to work with the people andanimals around you, Its exciting,its entertaining, its fun, but mostof all, its loved by everyone whoparticipates in it. And trust me; bythe end of the day, we felt it,- HOLLY HAYSOur alpha female goat ran throughmy legs one time and I accidentallyended up riding her to the bottom ofthe hill.— junior Emily HoaglandI was bending over feeding thegoats when this one goat justjumped on my back and was ridingme around and he wouldnt get off.— sophomore Andrew LuciusI was walking my 4-H steer and itdrug me all around the yard andripped my pants really bad. I didnthave time to change so I had to goto the fair like that,- senior Jeremiah CarpenterMy brother went to go sit by one ofour two cows and it raised its headup and ended up picking mybrother up and throwing him into afence.— freshman Jevon Sturgeon■•■.j
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomsouth/id/8378
Collection:	Bloomington High School South

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