Will you FLIP over our new videos from Oregon Ag Fest 2008?

Last week, Capital Press received a new tool to use in their jobs. Some call it a tool. Others might call it a new toy. But the bottom line is the new Flip Video Ultra Series cameras are small camcorders that allow our staff to get another angle to our coverage.

We are now a company that is doing more than just writing for a weekly agricultural newspaper that gets into the mailboxes of farmers in the West once a week. We have a website that publishes stories daily from staff and Associated Press; we send out a daily newsletter; and we also send out breaking news alerts to those who sign up to receive them.

We have been expanding out multimedia offerings: We now have photo slideshows, audio of interviews, and — with our new tool/toy — video to add to the website.

Oregon State University Extension and Experiment Station Communications staff were kind enough to provide us some training last week, since they are familiar with the Flip Video camcorders and have used the devices for some of their work.

This past weekend, I took my Flip Video to Ag Fest in Salem to record some video, then posted it to YouTube. There are some pros and cons to the camcorder, but some of the benefits is its size, ease of use and (when all software is cooperating between Apple and Quicktime — and that’s another story!), its ease to posting to YouTube.

Here are a couple examples of what I have taped so far. Stay tuned to see a lot more of this on Capital Press’ multimedia site and/or on YouTube.

First, here's a compilation of some of the events that helped entertain as well as educate Oregon children — and adults — about agriculture. The event was held in Salem, Oregon on April 26-27.



In the second video, Michele Ruby, Executive Director of Oregon Ag Fest 2008, met with Elaine Shein of Capital Press at the end of the event on April 27 to share what a success it had been, what is its role, and how important it is to have volunteers.

Ag Fest a success for many reasons

Michael Roth, left and Kathy Moreland, far right, accept on behalf of Roth's Markets the Oregon Ag Star award on April 28, 2007 in Salem. Sherry Kudna, Ag Fest chair, and emcee John Burt present the award. Burt also received an Ag Star award. The awards are for an individual, business or organization who has made significant contributions to the agricultural industry.


SALEM, Ore. — While the number of people gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary banquet of Oregon Ag Fest in Salem on April 28 was modest, there was a lot to celebrate last weekend: by the time the sunshine-filled two-day event was over, the total attendance was 17,250.

That was up from a year before. It also showed remarkable growth since it first began. According to emcee John Burt, the executive director of the Farmers Ending Hunger organization, the beginning of Ag Fest involved pitching a tent in Riverfront Park in Salem, with “a half dozen displays and a couple pieces of machinery.”

About 400 people showed up at the first event, which eventually changed its focus to attracting children and moved to occupy several buildings on the Oregon State Fairgrounds.

But there are a lot of reasons to celebrate this event and its growing success, beyond the number of adults and kids that attend each year.

There are an incredible number of volunteers, from farmers to farm organizations, and all types of agri-businesses. They come from all over the state to teach kids how to pet, feed, grow and even count: they promote agriculture, but more importantly teach the next generation why they should care.

As Burt pointed out, the event is held in April so people in agriculture can be there: “You’re across the table from 10,000 kids” and they get to talk to growers.

That is the most important lesson of all: in a time when agriculture is under such scrutiny, farmers and ranchers need someone to explain, encourage and celebrate what they do. As farmers prepare for vegetables to be planted, fruit to be harvested, calves to be weaned and other crops to be cut, they deserve more understanding as well as respect for all that they nurture.

Kids, especially from urban areas, can’t always visit the farm so other learning experiences have been developed. Oregon’s Agriculture in the Classroom program reached 48,500 students last year, often by visiting classrooms throughout the state and encouraging teachers to use the Get Oregonized resource guide.

The Ag Fest experience takes the learning experience another step, and creates a chance for people to see vegetables, seeds, animals and fowl first hand; pet animals ranging from llamas to rabbits; take a plant home to watch it grow; and learn enough facts to fill a text book.

Oregon Ag Fest also presents awards to those who have made significant contributions to the agriculture industry: nominations include individuals, businesses or organizations.

This year, Roth’s Markets received an award, as did John Burt.

The first Roth’s store first opened in 1962 in Silverton, Ore., and since then the supermarket chain has gained a reputation for using local and regional products and community involvement. Roth’s has helped encourage children to learn about agriculture in such places as Oregon Garden.

Since the beginning, the family-owned Roth’s has helped with Ag Fest and “been extremely generous with the time their staff,” said Burt.

Meanwhile, Burt has received several awards already from the agricultural community for his contributions. From being involved in extension services at Oregon State University, to being on the boards of various food banks and now his involvement with the Farmers Ending Hunger organization, Burt has shown his dedication to supporting farmers and been recognized for his efforts.

But he became teary eyed and speechless for a few moments when he was surprised with the Ag Star award this year. He has watched this event grow, and it was obvious how much he believes in its goal of providing an educational experience for families.



“This is an incredible, incredible event,” he said “Of all the things I’ve ever did in my career … this is one of the best things I’ve ever did, and best things I’ve ever been involved with,” Burt said. “ All the work that goes into letting the public know what agriculture is all about and engaging them in a positive, educational way there’s nothing like Ag Fest, it’s the most incredible thing.”

Looking out at the current Ag Fest organizers identifiable by their red shirts, he honored them.

“Twenty years later, you’ve got still the best event I’ve seen anywhere,” he told them, emotion evident in his voice.

From those who gathered, there was a unanimous roar of agreement and warm applause, even from those whose voices were hoarse from talking to hundreds of children who visited their booths earlier.


Sherry Kudna presents John Burt with an Oregon Ag Star award recognizing his contributions to Ag Fest for the last 20 years.


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Ag Fest teaches 10 lessons to a volunteer

Brent Searle and his wife Shelley help teach four-year-old Mikayla Wolf how to make a "living necklace" out of a wet cotton ball, bean, plastic bag and piece of string. Parents Samantha and Brent Wolf watch during Ag Fest, held in Salem April 29-30.


By Elaine Shein


SALEM — Last weekend, more than 17,000 kids visited Ag Fest in Salem, Ore., to learn more about agriculture, especially in an interactive, hands-on way.

After dealing single-handedly with what seemed to be several thousand, although since it was only a three or four-hour shift as a volunteer I may be mildly exaggerating, I found that I had learned a lot from the kids themselves.

First, some background. My modest role, as a volunteer for the Oregon Ag in the Classroom Foundation, seemed simple enough. At least, that was what I was told by AITC’s program director, Tami Kerr, and a former AITC president, Brent Searle.

In his day job, Brent is a special assistant of Director Katy Coba at the Oregon Department of Agriculture. However last weekend Brent, with the assistance of his wife Shelley, could be found leaning over a big container of wet cotton balls and teaching kids how to grow a miraculous bean plant.

When I arrived for my shift, Brent looked relieved and exhausted, but was doing a great job interacting with the kids. His wife also did a super job helping out. Together they assured me the task was simple and really rewarding.

Introduce to the children the exciting concept of living necklaces. Encourage them to take a wet cotton ball, flatten it like a pancake to take out the excess water, place a kidney bean in the center, fold it over like a hotdog to hide the bean, place it in a small plastic bag that had a string attached, and ask the child to take it home and place it in a nice sunny spot for a few days. Voila: a bean should sprout and begin to grow.

There were even people who freely gave testimonials that the bean experiment was so successful that in the past, bean plants were moved outside into garden soil and grew into tall healthy bean plants.

I still cannot verify that anyone named Jack climbed these huge beanstalks to raise his income by a giant profit, but many sources mentioned Jack.

Kerr offered great encouragement, repeating several times that she believed it was a good experience for AITC board members to help out at Ag Fest and experience firsthand what she does do often in classrooms around the state and at events such as this.

While teaching kids to appreciate and understand agriculture, I also learned a few lessons myself.

The valuable lessons included:
1) Mingling chewing gum with cotton balls is never a good thing.

2) Never ask a child holding a lollipop in one hand, an ice cream cone in another, to use both hands to help with an activity. The child will shrug and drop one or both items anywhere without a second thought. Look desperately for a nearby mother or a compassionate grandmotherly-type stranger to help out.

3) Drink lots of fluids since it’s easy to lose one’s voice after repeating over and over again “So, would you like to make a living necklace out of a bean and a cotton ball?”

4) After losing one’s voice, being a mime with kids is not the most effective way to get their attention, unless you’re trapped in an invisible box and are painted like a clown and you are expected not to have a voice. Otherwise, you are only mildly amusing to the children and very scary to their parents.

5) Never force parents to take home bean plants that they really don’t want in their house. Chasing them down and begging them to take the plants their kids made won’t help the situation. Explaining that a bean plant is much less maintenance than a puppy also does not earn points with the parents. They will now despise you for mentioning a puppy.

6) Telling the children of vegetarians to fold a cotton ball over the bean “like a hotdog” really leads to bewildering looks. Say “like a blanket” instead.

7) Asking a child to gently flatten a wet cotton ball and squeeze out the water like a pancake will not always be the best advice to give. They miss the “gently” part and slap and squish and mangle the poor cotton ball heartily until it is gasping for even a drop of water.

8) If the child has just come from the “how to make a dirt baby” booth, be prepared to see the cotton balls become rather brown, grimey wads of cotton. Consider the soil as extra nourishment for the bean.

9) After child mixes chewing gum, lollipop, ice cream cone, wet cotton ball and a bean, hastily move unto the next child while the parent desperately attempts to settle the mess. And finally,

10) Never forget to tell all the children out loud what a super job they are doing, then later whisper to the parent to go home and add more water or change the bean. “Any bean will do … really … just hide it in the cotton, add water and sun, and pretend it’s the same bean! Just like what you did with their pet hamsters in the past!"

I have whole new appreciation for what Tami and others do when they help teach kids hands-on lessons about agriculture.

And I brought home a couple bean living necklaces myself to see how they will grow.

Perhaps in a few days I will update readers of this blog on what happened, and provide pictures of the great success that may take place.

Or I’ll go shopping for more beans and cotton.

Links:
Oregon Ag Fest




Ag Fest
Agriculture