Even with all the colorful, shiny fair rides at the WNC Agricultural Center, it was the bulls with the largest horns and the tiniest chicks that recently captured the attention of kindergarteners.
The NC Mountain State Fair hosted students from Atkinson, Glenn C. Marlow and Sugarloaf elementaries this week, as part of its educational outreach program – which has been inviting student groups to the park for at least ten years.
Guided through the park by North Buncombe High School’s Future Farmers of America club members, the kindergarteners were introducing the children to wood turning, beekeeping, a mobile dairy classroom, as well as pigs, chickens, goats, llamas, horses and cattle.
“Our group saw the exhibits of the agricultural crops – pumpkins that were 400 lbs and watermelons that were 100 lbs.” said Mark Page, principal at Atkinson.
The students were also treated to the bear, groundhog, and friendship dances performed by the Tsalagi Touring Group from Cherokee, and a pig race.
“We try to give them an educational experience and entertain them a little,” said Ron Stamey, marketing director for the NC Mountain State Fair. “A fair wouldn’t be a fair without pig races.”
(Written by Molly McGowan Gorsuch, HCPS Public Information Officer.)