|
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Jefferson County third-grader will be Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer’s guest at the annual Farm-City Luncheon in November in Louisville as the Kentucky winner of the Bonnie Plants Third Grade Cabbage Program competition.
Helena Tomanic, a student in Ericha Smith-Nason’s third-grade class at Jeffersontown Elementary School, will be honored at the luncheon Nov. 10 at the Kentucky Exposition Center. She will receive a certificate for a Series I savings bond valued at $1,000.Helena won the competition in her classroom by growing a cabbage weighing 15.5 pounds. Her name was drawn from among classroom winners throughout the Commonwealth.
“I’m pleased to welcome Helena to the Farm-City Luncheon,” Commissioner Farmer said. “The Third Grade Cabbage Program provides valuable lessons to students about agriculture and the way it touches everyone’s life every day. I commend Bonnie Plants for this program.”
Bonnie Plants sales people go to third-grade classrooms to talk about the Third Grade Cabbage Program and provide cabbage plants for students to grow. The student who grows the biggest cabbage in each classroom is nominated by his or her teacher for the state title and the savings bond, which is intended to go toward the winning student’s college expenses. The winner in each state is chosen in a drawing.
Bonnie Plants of Union Springs, Ala., will honor winners in 40 states this year. The company started the Third Grade Cabbage Program in Alabama in 2002. This is the second year Bonnie Plants will award savings bonds to the winners. The competition also is open to 4-H clubs and classes that participate in the Ag in the Classroom program. More than 1 million students in 54,000 classrooms participated in the program this year.
The Farm-City Luncheon brings rural and urban people from Louisville and the surrounding area together for food and entertainment. The Wing Tip Rodeo, which follows the luncheon, pits “farm” and “city” teams in a competition to rope a model of a calf. The Louisville-area Agribusiness of the Year is honored at the luncheon. The Agribusiness Industry Network of Greater Louisville Inc. produces the luncheon, which is sponsored by Kentucky Bison Co.
--30--
|
