Local School Districts Receiving 2018 Standing Up for Rural Wisconsin Schools, Libraries and Communities Awards
Tuesday, October 30th, 2018 -- 9:01 AM
-Projects that have students learning maple syrup production and career and independent living skills, and encouraging them to consider careers in education are among eight receiving 2018 Standing Up for Rural Wisconsin Schools, Libraries, and Communities awards.Nominated by educators throughout the state, the projects will be recognized during the 10th Annual Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance Conference Oct. 29-30 in Wisconsin Dells. The projects include the Owen-Withee Maple Project, Empty Bowls School and Community Service Project in Black River Falls and Bringing the Barn to School Project in the Medford Agriculture Department. Two years ago, the Owen-Withee School Board asked the Ag-Tech program and the FFA chapter to strategize on better use of the school’s forests, of which many acres went unused and were unknown to district students. After a fall walk-through, the groups and some FFA alumni suggested a maple sap collecting operation that would give students real-world experiences in agribusiness. Students and FFA alumni volunteers set up the 1,800 tap collection system over a 10-day period in October 2017. Several miles of tubing connects each maple tree on a 30-acre property and a high capacity vacuum pump pulls the maple sap to collection tanks, where two local producers collect the raw material to process it into maple syrup. The system also features a cloud-based monitoring system that tracks production and reports leaks or other problems that need repair.
This past March, the FFA and FFA alumni welcomed more than 60 guests to a school forest open house where guests saw the technologies used, learned about the Wisconsin maple syrup industry, and toured the Forest Maple Project. Additionally, FFA members toured maple processing facilities during the spring season and have spent multiple weekends this past summer at area farmers’ markets selling their finished product. The syrup is also sold at a local apple orchard, grocery store, and is featured in the school’s breakfast program. Medford’s Bringing the Barn to School project involved purchasing three acres adjoining the school district to construct a farm facility with room for animals, classroom, and shop workspace. The Black River Falls Career and Technical Education Department collaborated last year with community partners to create the Empty Bowls School and Community Service Project to address rural food shortages in the area.
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