Grant provides kids summer fun, education

Even during the summer months, Plains School was

hopping with kids and at one point it was hopping with

bugs. But there was no need for an exterminator, they

were just visiting.

Brenna Shea from the Butterfly House and Insectarium

in Missoula was one of the guest speakers for

the Plains Schools Summer Program, which ended last

week with a trip to Wild Horse Lavender, a farm and

ranch about 12 miles west of Plains.

This was the third year the school held this summer

program, which Principal Kevin Meredith was able to

obtain with a grant. The six-week program this year

began on June 19 and is being run by Gena Ferlan, a

teacher at the school, and paraeducators Ricki Kulawinski

and Erin Miller. Sixty-nine kids signed up for the

program, which had an average of 30 showing up each

day, said Ferlan. The kids were at the school Monday

through Thursday for four hours each morning doing

a variety of activities, including their own garden and

greenhouse. They even harvested their own kale, peas,

green beans, and Swiss chard, said Ferlan, who added

that Wildhorse Nursery and Bonnie Plants donated

some of the plants. Ginnie Loveall from Bonnie Plants was the guest

during the first week.

The group's final field trip was to Wild Horse Lavender, where the 35 kids were divided into

groups and rotated to the four stations at the 84- acre ranch, facilitated by owners Carissa McNamara and her husband, Bruce Beckstead, along with Karrie Baldwin of Thompson

Falls, McNamara's mother, and Matthew Hauk, the educational director of Montana Farmers Union.

Hauk manned a station with a lesson in cooperation by having the kids pair up and build a farm structure. He told them that the first Montana homesteaders had to work together to survive. Each group got the same "building materials" - marshmallows and pasta

sticks. At the station of "Farmer Bruce" the kids were given a gardening lesson and received a free potato to take home. Baldwin talked about harvesting lavender and lavender products.

Each person received a small bundle of lavenders. McNamara took her groups on a short hike to the portion of Swamp Creek that runs through the ranch and discussed taking care of the environment without chemicals. The kids also had a snack and were allowed to pick cherries from the orchard.

McNamara and Beckstead routinely have school groups at their ranch, but this was the first time to have the Plains Summer Program kids. McNamara said she'd like to have them

back next year. Montana Farmers Union, the oldest and largest agriculture grassroots organization in Montana, sponsored the day's activities.

"This is especially a good program because we started planting our own garden at the beginning and ended it on a farm," said Ferlan, who teaches Title 1, physical education and driver's education at Plains School. "I think it's an important program for the kids whose

parents can't provide structured fun," said Ferlan. "It's better than them sitting in front of a screen," she added.

Ferlan had numerous guests throughout the summer, including speakers from the Plains Police and Fire Departments, and Plains Community Ambulance. Briana Rivinius,

owner of Hello Sweetness Designs, organized a bug craft painting session for

the kids. Wendy Carr of the Sanders County Extension Office, who facilitated the

trip to the lavender farm, also sponsored an arborist from Montana State

University in Bozeman to visit the school as a guest speaker to talk about pollinators.

The kids took a walking field trip to the new Wildhorse Nursery, located next to the Mangy Moose in Plains. The owner gave the group a tour of the nursery and gave the kids flowers and goody bags. During the second week, the kids walked to the Plains-Thompson Falls

Ranger District, where they talked with Forest Service firefighters and staffers, and met Smokey Bear. The kids also got to try on firefighting gear and use fire hoses. Joel Collett, owner of Studs Building & Home, brought a crew and materials to build bird houses during week three. Employees Zach Butcher and Dave Kirkwood, along with Wendy Collett, helped the kids with the bird house construction. They also had a variety of paints for the kids to decorate their houses. "I want a color that's going to make the birds insane," said 10-year-old Braden Fisher, who also drew smiley faces on the inside wall of his birdhouse.

"We like getting the kids interested in woodworking and working with their hands," said Joel Collett, who donated the material and time as a way to give back to the community.

"This is where we live and where we work and where we want to invest," he said. "It's a good program. The kids were excited not to do homework, but they miss their friends during the summer," said Ferlan. She wasn't sure which guest or field trip the kids liked

best, but she didn't hear any negative feedback. Her 8-year-old daughter, Pearl, said her favorites were the lavender trip and the visit from the "bug lady," who had a pair of blue death feigning beetles, a Florida ivory millipede, and some Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

This is the second time the nonprofit organization has participated in the Plains Summer Program. "They all have their own survival skills so they can avoid being someone's

lunch," said Shea, who's been with the Butterfly House and Insectarium for five years and has traveled to about 50 schools so far this year. The self proclaimed "bug wrangler"

wanted the kids to be good bug scientists and tell her what they observed about the bugs.

Shea showed the tiny critters one at a time and let the kids hold them, though a few were reluctant or outright refused. She said none of them bite or sting, but she warned them

that their little feet might be ticklish. As she passed them from child to child, she talked about each bug and quizzed the kids after each one to see what they observed. The kids' guess on the number of legs the four-inch long millipede had ranged from seven to one hundred million.

The kids then had the opportunity to draw a creation of their own bug and invent a name for their new species. "I love what they come up with and they have such interesting ideas," said Shea. Steel Pinter, 9, named his new breed of bug "Bob," while Saydi Carter, 10, designed one that spits and claws, which she called a "butterscotch bug."

Ferlan said she loved running the program and would like to do it again next year. She felt it was a success because so many of the kids came back day after day. "It seemed every

day they started out happy and went home happy," said Ferlan, who also credits the guest speakers and those who allowed the kids to visit their business.

"We wanted to enrich their

minds and their bodies and

I think we did that," she

said.