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