Literacy Event a Rousing Success
6/24/2008

“My students loved the presentation! It was an awesome way to kick off our plant unit,” wrote Jill McAllister, an appreciative and enthusiastic Salem teacher. McAllister was talking about a presentation by Sandra Norman, a volunteer with the Agriculture Literacy Event. Norman and over 120 volunteers from around the state donated their time to read to students in Kindergarten through third grade classrooms.

Accolades like McAllister’s have been flooding the office of Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) Foundation, the organizer of the agriculture literacy project. This is the first year the event has been held and over 7,300 children around the state participated. Volunteers for the project went to classrooms, read to students, and did a plant science activity.

The Oregon Association of Nurseries and the Agri-Business Council of Oregon sponsored the first year of the event, providing funds to purchase the books which were donated to the classrooms after the presentations.

The book that launched the literacy project was Oh Say Can You Seed? All About Flowering Plants. This book is part of the Cat in the Hat Learning Library. It uses the familiar characters of Cat in the Hat, Thing One and Thing Two and the boy and girl from the original Dr. Seuss story to tell children how seeds germinate, grow, flower and produce fruits and vegetables. The book illustrates in simple and easy to understand language the marvelous role plants play in our world.

Volunteers from agriculture groups such as FFA high school students, Oregon Women for Agriculture, 4-H Ambassadors, Master Gardeners, Sigma Alpha, Collegiate 4-H, and agriculture producers played a vital role in the success of this project. They were all enthusiastic to spread their love of reading and agriculture to Oregon’s young learners.

AITC Executive Director, Tami Kerr, feels this year’s success was due to a combination of a good book and great volunteers. “First the Oregon Association of Nurseries and the Agri-Business Council of Oregon stepped up and provided that funds to make this event happen. Then we had a huge outpouring of interest from agriculture groups whose members volunteered their time and talents. They have been instrumental in the success of the literacy project and our program as a whole. We couldn’t do it without them.”

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