Wow! I don’t know if any of you have ever tried to fill balloons with flour with young children on a windy day, but that is exactly what we attempted at Power of Produce last week. We made “silly bees”, which was essentially a stress ball balloon, in order to teach the kids about pollinators. The kids loved it despite having flour fly everywhere! All our PoP Clubs have been so much fun, but that may have been one of my favorites. Seeing the kids laugh when the wind blew the flour was just great. They even got excited to tell us everything they already knew about bees and other pollinators!
However, none of this would be possible without our many sponsors for the Power of Produce Clubs in Rock Rapids, Sheldon, and Hawarden. At this point in the summer, Kassidy, Jessica, and I would like to take some of our time to thank our sponsors for helping fund our programs.
First off, the ISU Foundation Excellence in Extension Grant helped fund all three Power of Produce markets in Rock Rapids, Sheldon, and Hawarden. Each community then had its own sponsors. Frontier Bank, US Bank, Premiere Bank, Mike and Jackie Austin, and Rock Rapids Chamber of Commerce all made the Rock Rapids PoP Club possible. In Sheldon, we would like to thank Sanford Sheldon Medical Center. Finally, the Hawarden PoP Club, which begins next week, will be funded in part by Peoples Bank, Cooperative Farmers Elevator (CFE), and Premier Bank.
So, a big thank you and round of applause for all of our wonderful sponsors. Without them, we would not have been able to work with the children that have made our summer truly memorable. Now with only a few PoP Clubs remaining, we are definitely going to cherish what time we have left with all of the kids that we have come to know during our internship. If you’re in the area, feel free to stop out to the farmers markets to see the impact that these sponsors and the program have had on the children. It is quite a scene every week!
Allie Faivre