Jungle Fever

Jungle Fever seems to have struck the staff and residents of the Eastern Star Home. Pictured "On Safari" is Leslie Blair (front), Ginny Stapp and Ida Tiff (second row), Margaret Holms and Shery Kloss (third row), Paulette Cleberg, and Jolene Wall (forth row), Andrea Wuestewald and Toni Evans (fifth row). It was just a fun little day-said organizers. The residents and staff would be served elephant tracks for lunch and later in the day there would be prizes for the best dressed.

Photos by LoriJo Mundstock





Pizza is Served

Brendan Roth, Becky Leonard and Ethan Kopplin and the other gardeners served the from scratch meal to celebrate a successful garden.





Pizza Gardeners

Back row, l to r: Mark Rosenberg, Becky Leonard, Sp. Co. Extension Office; Ron Neeman, Thrivent. Middle row: Ethan Kopplin, Traci Harford, Nicollette Schmidt, Dalton Howe, Adam Hyke. Front: Brendan Roth, Megan Hyke, and Breanna Roth.



What’s better than ordering a pizza? Growing your own ingredients and making it from scratch while learning valuable lessons in life and sharing the experience with the older generation. On Sept. 18, a group of children, Eastern Star Residents and staff and the groups responsible for sponsoring the event invited the town of Redfield to a Pizza Garden Party.

Becky Leonard at the Spink County Extension office was talking with co-worker who had done a pizza garden in Miller and decided they should do one in Redfield. Thrivent found out about it and said they would help with funding and the Eastern Star Home donated the land for the garden as well as did watering and upkeep.

The Pizza Garden children ranging in number from five to eight kids per week meeting every Thursday throughout the summer. Before they actually planted the garden there were lessons on Garden Safety and Plant Growth and planning lessons. On May 22, the anxious group was able to rake the area on the lawn of the Eastern Star home and mark the borders. Planting took place on June 12 with seeds donated to the project by Tom and Letha Gallup, Blume Seeds, Wheat Growers, and Sp. Co. Farm and Hardware.

As the garden grew so did the lessons. Kids were taught about dairy and how it pertained to pizza, an insect lesson which included a ladybug research project, there’s a tree in my pizza about packaging for commercial pizzas, a harvesting lesson where the group learned about harvesting their vegetables and washing them. The group also learned how to make salsa, which was a big enough hit they did that one twice. They learned how to make pizza sauce and tomato puree from the tomatoes they grew and learned about nutrition and how pizza relates to the food pyramid.

Besides lessons and planting there was also some building. On May 22 while raking the area and marking the garden, there were some benches made for around the garden and umbrellas put up for the benches. A raised wheelchair access was made so residents could access the garden. The Eastern Star Residents had so much fun they made a "Pizza Garden Book".

Because the Pizza Garden showed such a strong demonstration of a solid youth and adult partnership and had such a notable impact on the community it was chosen as one of the ten winners in the Join Hands Day Excellence Award Program. There was nearly 1000 projects considered to receive the award. The Project was honored with a Join Hands Day excellence Award engraved with the names of the project’s participating organizations and a check for $1000 for the groups to decide what they will do with it. One thing for sure, the kids would like to see another pizza garden next year. They had a great turn-out for the event.

and everyone enjoyed the pizza and salsa served.