Games, crafts part of MFU day camps
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 07/21/2011 9:47 AM
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WASECA, Minn. — Counselors outnumbered campers gathered for the Minnesota Farmers Union day camp at Farmamerica, but that didn't seem to dampen anyone's fun.
Farmamerica volunteer Burt Coy was first on the program. Coy lives near Waldorf and has volunteered at Farmamerica since 2000.
He led a tour around Time Lane Road, stopping first at the 1860s farmstead. Wheat was the most important crop the settlers planted, he said. He demonstrated the corn planter of the time, a crude tool that required 8,000 stabs to plant one acre of corn. The corn was spaced so it could be cultivated both ways to keep the weeds down, he said.
It wasn't uncommon for couple to have as many as 17 children because they needed the labor the children could provide as the aged.
The site contains three homes: the dugout where families first lived, then a wooden house with a grass roof where herbs were raised and the third a house with wooden floors and a wooden roof. The 16th governor of Minnesota, John Albert Johnson, was born in the house, Coy said.
Visits to the schoolhouse, church and 1930s farmstead followed. Coy told stories at each site, sharing how the church was moved to Farmamerica in 1987, how schoolteachers had to be unmarried and all about party line telephones.
"There's a lot of history here," said Hugh Belgard of Garden City, who brought his granddaughter, Alayna Hawker, 4, of Kasota to the day camp.
Coy deposited the group at Farmamerica's main building saying, "If you liked it (the tour) tell your friends. If you didn't tell us."
From there, counselors took over. First, there was crop art, where campers used soybeans, corn, peas and other seeds to create works of art.
Then it was outside, where they played games designed to teach working together. There was a game where campers had to find their way through a maze and another where a blindfolded ball thrower needed to make five baskets in a hula hoop located by the shouts of those holding the hoop.
"The purpose of our day camps are to teach children about cooperation, an important building block for strong rural communities," said Glen Schmidt, MFU education director. "Cooperative educational games, developed by National Farmers Union, show children the importance of working
together in teams to reach goals."
Day camps are geared to children ages 5 through 10, though they're flexible a year or two on each side.
Camp attendance varies, but so far this year they've had 106 campers total at day camps held in Palisade, Sleepy Eye, Mazeppa, Lake Crystal and at Farmamerica .
Camp costs range from free to $5. The camps are supported by Minnesota Farmers Union Foundation and CHS Foundation. Pre-registration is encouraged, but not required.
For more information on MFU day camps, contact Glen Schmidt at 651-288-4066 or glen@mfu.org.