GOWANDA, NY (WKBW) — The Gowanda Central School District hosted its second-grade agricultural pen pal celebration on Thursday at the elementary school on Aldrich Street.
The event showcased a year-long program started by second-grade teacher Amber Reding that connected her students with local farmers to promote learning about agriculture and community.
Reding initiated "Ag Pen Pals" by reaching out to local farmers, receiving more than 40 positive responses. This enabled her to pair two students with each farmer, allowing students to correspond monthly throughout the school year.
“This community collaboration project has been incredibly successful, with 65 students writing to 40 local farms,” Reding said. “We hope to expand and have even more farms participate next year.”
Throughout the program, students practiced letter writing and learned about plant and animal lifecycles, family teamwork, and the science and social studies concepts behind agriculture. The participating farmers included beekeepers, maple syrup producers, and beef, dairy, and vegetable farmers.
During the celebration, students expressed their excitement. Sky Singh said, “It was fun,” while Everly Printup described the event as “an awesome day.”
Farmers who participated highlighted the educational importance of the program. Becky Kron explained that children learned about the hard work involved in food production, while Staci Saulter aimed to instill comfort with animals in young students. Saulter provided hands-on experiences, allowing students to interact with animals like Adonis, a horse from Nash Hill Equestrian Center.
Students shared what they learned through their pen-pal interactions. Ayden Vetter mentioned that he discovered it takes 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of maple syrup. Meanwhile, Maverick learned about the differences between bison and buffalo, noting, “Buffalo have curly horns, and bison have straight horns.”
Reding expressed her enthusiasm for the future of the program, stating, “It exceeded our expectations this year, and we’re super excited to see it grow into something bigger and better.”
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
