Tractors, combines, farm animals, games and educational demonstrations recently were set up outside St. John’s Sauers Lutheran School.
It was part of Ag Day on Friday, organized by the school’s parent-teacher organization.
“Since we could not have any field trips this year, we decided to bring some fun to the school,” said Ashley Bohall, a Sauers PTO representative.
Students ranging from preschoolers to eighth-graders participated in the event, whether that was playing cornhole, brushing a donkey or learning about different feeds for different animals.
In years past, the school would participate in Cortland Elementary School’s Ag Day. Due to that event being canceled because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Sauers PTO decided to try to bring a similar-type event to their own school.
“You don’t have to go anywhere. We just brought it here,” Bohall said.
Rose Acre Farms, Jacobi Sales, Premier Farm and Pet, John Deere, Purdue Extension Jackson County, Trinity Lutheran High School FFA, Hackman Show Feed and various members of the community and Sauers congregation provided donations to make Ag Day happen.
Eighth grader Brady Sawyer said he was most excited to see an alpaca.
“I think alpacas are cool,” he said. “They’re kind of like a llama, but they’re not a llama. I like them.”
Trinity FFA provided games such as washers and a football toss, and a planting station to teach Sauers students how to plant.
“I think it’s a good way to show what FFA is,” sophomore Levi Froedge said.
Trinity freshman Paige Davidson rode a horse and was showing it to students.
“Being in agriculture really changes your life,” she said. “You get to work with some pretty cool animals and some pretty cool people.”
Ag Day brought more fun and agricultural education to Sauers than an average school day, and Trinity freshman Trenton Burton had a sentiment toward FFA that was similar to the Ag Day experience.
“It has some work involved, but there is almost always a lot of fun and you get a lot out of it,” he said. “It teaches you a lot of lessons you really will use.”