Trout Mania April 2010
SEEDS After School in Kalkaska Catches Trout Fever!
SEEDS After School joined the community of Kalkaska to celebrate the 74th Annual National Trout Festival on April 21st – 25th. The National Trout Festival brings community, business and family together to honor the heritage of our natural resources, trout fishing and sportsmanship. They take pride in promoting environmental education and the arts through entertainment – concepts important to our SEEDS mission as well.
On Friday, SEEDS students and staff from Kalkaska Middle School and Forest Area Middle School were proud to win third place in the Youth Parade with their “trout fever float.” Our float was decked out with a huge fish and several young fisher-people. Other students and staff walked alongside the float passing out packets of SEEDS sunflower seeds for spectators to plant in their yards.
Saturday was also jam-packed with activities. SEEDS had an official booth right next to the National Trout Festival booth at the fairgrounds. Visitors had a chance to meet with SEEDS staff, learn about our program, and try their hand at tossing a trout through the small hole in our fisherman mural. Don’t worry – they were bean bag trout!
To top off Saturday, SEEDS entered their mint-condition vintage grocery cart in the highly competitive Grocery Cart Race
on Main Street. Our cart was decorated by Kalkaska Middle School SEEDS students and filled with over 30 pounds of organic food and canned goods, which we later donated to the local pantry. KMS SEEDS student Jonathan Weatherholt started the first leg of the race, and his speed and adept grocery cart maneuvering kept us in the heat of things. A quick and clean hand-off to the speedy Joe Warner for the second leg of the race eventually earned us the third place prize!
SEEDS After School in Kalkaska has many more events and activities coming up. Please contact Nate Shivlie at 231.258.4040 Ext. 252 or 231.394.0049 or Jana Lanning at 231.357.6896 for more information.