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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 2015)
Polk County Education 18A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • October 28, 2015 Zucchini car winners announced MONMOUTH — Mid-Valley Christian Academy announced the winners of the annual zucchini car race and contest. Students selected a zucchini from the Diaz Farm and spent a week designing and decorating their vegetable vehicle to be judged in a variety of categories. The winners were: Ava Garcia, smallest; Madelyn Nieves, fun- niest; Hudson Stange, fastest; Joseph Helin, tallest; Clara Kersh- ner, strangest; and James Helin, heaviest. For more information about MVCA: 503-838-2818 or online at midvalca.org. SMART needs more volunteers POLK COUNTY — Start Making a Reader Today (SMART) is looking for more volunteers to read to children for an hour a week. The SMART program provides one-on-one reading time with kindergarteners at Independence, Oakdale Heights and Lyle el- ementary schools. Sign up online at getsmartoregon.org, or call 877-598-4633 for more information. Dallas FFA to host Halloween food drive EMILY MENTZER/Itemizer-Observer Alexa Eckhold, 9, helps Jenica Baker, 9, replant wild pansies in the garden beds at Kings Valley Charter School. REAPING WHAT THEY SOW Students at Kings Valley Charter School learn about gardening, recycling By Emily Mentzer The Itemizer-Observer KINGS VALLEY — Half a dozen students eagerly gath- ered around a bucket of torn Itemizer-Observers that had been soaking in detergent for about two weeks. This was the start of the “recycling factory,” and Thursday these Kings Valley Charter School kids would learn to make their own paper, reusing old newspa- per. “It is extremely slimy,” said Jenica Baker, 9, as she picked up some of the clumpy mixture. After blending the soaked bits of paper, it was added to another solution with blue dye. Students took turns stir- ring it up. “It’s easy and hard,” said Cedric Petrovich, 8, as he moved what looked like a 2- foot long paint stirrer through the thick concoc- How you can help: Kings Valley Charter School could use volun- teers for these projects with the garden program: • A bid from a fence builder to help set up a garden fence. • Volunteers to help set up fence and build garden beds with kids. • Sew small pouches for lavender. • Help out with class, or help start an after-school gar- dening program. • Make a mobile chicken coop. • Find donations of cover crop seeds or reduced prices for seeds. • Share plants from your garden — especially if you’re splitting them. For more information: Lua Siegel, lsiegel@- kvschool.org. tion. “It changes every mil- lisecond or so.” Once it was sufficiently mixed, Lua Siegel, the gar- dening teacher at KVCS, took a screen and showed students how to make paper, which will be the cover of their science journals. “You will keep all your ob- servations in your journal,” she said, demonstrating how to dip the screen into the blue gunk at an angle to get an even sheet of recycled paper. Then students could add flower petals or leaves to decorate it, which would be encased in the paper once it dried. Elijah Bush, 8, said these sorts of projects is what makes gardening one of his favorite classes. “I like doing the activi- ties,” he said, working hard to stir the blue mixture. “I like making the soil; I like digging and putting the plants in. I like going to the greenhouse and looking at all the cool plants.” While waiting their turn, Cole Thompson and Raiden Case, both 9, began weeding the small garden plot near the playground. The school recently acquired a 10-acre plot adjacent to the elemen- tary school, but work there would wait until another day. See GROW, Page 17A DALLAS — The Dallas FFA Chapter will hold a Halloween Food Drive on Saturday. FFA members will be going door-to-door on Halloween ask- ing for donations. People can also leave food outside for pick- up. In association with Les Schwab Tire Center, food donations may be made at any Les Schwab Tire Center or FFA Chapter. Food will be donated to the Oregon Food Bank. The food drive is part of a statewide hunger initiative during the month of October by the Oregon FFA and Les Schwab stores. For more information: www.oregonfa.com or www.fa.org. KVCS Holiday Project nominations open KINGS VALLEY — The Kings Valley Charter School PTO is preparing for the Community Holiday Project for the 2015 holi- day season. The project is designed to help families in the Kings Valley community with extra support over the holiday season. The project’s goal is to provide all families in need in the community with a holiday food box and gifts for each member of the household. Nomination forms for you and/or another family can be found at www.surveymonkey.com/r/GXNDKMW to submit on- line. All nominations will be kept completely conidential and no information will be released outside of the committee. Nominations must be received by Nov. 13. For more information: Terra Macnab, 503-871-2632 or email to Macnab0517@gmail.com. Merit program commends DHS senior DALLAS — Dallas High School senior MaKenna Cook has been named a “Commended Student” in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Foundation. DHS Principal Steven Spencer presented Cook with the letter of commendation last week. Cook is one of 34,000 commended students out of 1.5 mil- lion who applied by taking the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Qualifying Test. Although she will not continue in the 2016 competition, commended students placed among the top 5 percent of entries. The Itemizer-Observer Your community news source