by NAFARI MORRIS
Each year, after Ag-Venture wraps up, its 11-member board is able to sit back and appreciate the fruits of their labor. But not for too long.
The next day, they get started planning next year’s event.
The board and its army of volunteers are preparing for the 25th installment of Ag-Venture, a three-day educational program. This year’s event takes place Nov. 12-14 and hundreds of students from Sebring, Avon Park, and Lake Placid are expected to descend upon the Highlands County Fairgrounds for the free event. The students who attend get hands-on lessons about the role agriculture plays in their lives.
At the fairgrounds, 14 stations are set up that cover a variety of topics, from farm animals to forestry to soil and water conservation. Students even learn how to make their own butter at the dairy station.
Danielle Daum, a member of the Highlands County Farm Bureau Board of Directors and past-chair and current vice-chair of the Florida Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee, is also one of the founders of the Ag-Venture program, alongside her mother, Darlene Phypers.
By Daum’s count, more than 30,000 students have participated in Ag-Venture. The impact the event has had can be eye-opening to say the least.
“We’ve had students who have never had an omelet before,” Daum says. “Some have never squeezed an orange or seen a chicken lay an egg. Some of the students will get a chance to hold a live alligator.”
At the most, the program can change the course of a life.
“We had a little boy years ago who loved the bee station and he started a conversation with our ‘bee-man,’ ” Phypers shares. “After Ag-Venture, he contacted the bee man and the little boy started his own bee hives, all the way through high school and raised money to go to college. That’s big – that’s a career!”
Those are experiences that potentially wouldn’t happen without help behind the scenes. Ag-Venture is fueled by volunteers and it takes about 150 of them each day to make it happen.
Debra Elliott was one of those volunteers back when Ag-Venture was just getting off the ground. Her family has its roots in agriculture, specifically the caladium industry. And as a former elementary school principal turned educator, the Lake Placid native helped Daum’s mom and a couple of other people figure out how to get the program off the ground in Highlands.
“When you are talking about moving the whole third grade to a field trip from school, there are a lot of details that need to be taken into consideration,” Phypers says. But it’s all worth it, she says, to watch students understand the role agriculture plays in their lives.
Now that she is retired, Phypers volunteers as her travel schedule permits. During her stint last year, she worked at the strawberry station, where they made strawberry milkshakes for the students.
“The station has to be near an electrical outlet, and there has to be a freezer for your ice cream,” Phypers explains. “The recipe card tells you how many scoops you need, and the blenders were all set up. We had a long table with a decorated tablecloth. It was down to the finest, tiniest detail.”
That’s only possible because of the volunteers, Daum points out.
“Our volunteers do everything,” she notes. “They’re helping children plant plants, offering water bottles to students and teachers, working in the kitchen to make lunches for our volunteers, cleaning up after our animals, even sorting shirts. All of it is important and all of it helps make this event happen.”
To volunteer or donate, contact Program Director Casey Moesching at 352-280-0330 or send an email to hcagventure@outlook.com.
