Young farmers learning responsibility

They may not be the most experienced of farmers, but the students at Garehime Elementary School know that in Las Vegas, it's important to keep the animals cool.

A group of fifth-grade student council representatives made a presentation to city officials that qualified the school for one of the Neighborhood Services Department's Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership program grants, good for $1,000 toward installing a misting system and making other upgrades to the Garehime Farm.

The farm, located in the kindergarten playground and currently consisting of three goats, three pot-bellied pigs, four chickens (with five more on the way) and two rabbits, was started two years ago with the help of kindergarten teachers Amy Lane and Colleen Marches.

All the materials used in putting it together were donated by the community.

"When we found out about the YNAP grants, we were encouraged to apply because we needed the misters," Marches said. "There's not a lot of shade out there, so the fifth graders put together their presentation and went to the committee."

Garehime is the site of a unique program called Garehime Heights, in which students form a business and government community and interact with each other. The farm is the kindergarten classes' business.

Marches said because of the success of the Garehime Heights project and extensions of it like the farm, most students are used to making plans and dealing with others. So the group requesting the grant was well prepared.

"Our kids are so used to this kind of stuff that we were more nervous than they were," Marches said. "In fact, they didn't just make a request, they put together a little skit to show what they needed. We never do anything normal around here."

The misting system was installed a few weeks ago. Because Garehime is a year-round school, kindergarten students are responsible for the farm upkeep and taking care of the animals, six of which were born on the premises.

Marches said the farm is just another example of expanding students' experiences, something practiced frequently at Garehime.

"It's amazing, the kind of results that (projects) like this create," she said. "We get a lot of students wanting to come to this school. We have very few attendance problems, because the kids don't want to miss out on stuff like this. And we have almost no behavior problems. Every student should get this kind of experience."