Students at Lake City Elementary School finished the 2022-23 school year with a lot of smiles, activities and dairy treats thanks to support from the local Farm Bureau, a parents’ group and a farm-friendly ice cream parlor.
Lake City’s MOPS group — Mothers of Preschoolers — organized a Touch-a-Truck event to help students celebrate the end of the school year.
Kids enjoyed climbing all over and through a variety of farm implements, construction vehicles, fire trucks, police cars and ambulances.
Several equipment dealers and ag businesses had representatives on site to help students understand what they do and how they help serve the Lake City community.
Also on site and representing the local farm community was Ellen Vanderwal, Promotion & Education chair for the Missaukee County Farm Bureau. With a selection of timely treats, including temporary cow tattoos and other dairy stickers, she reminded the amped-up attendees June was also Dairy Month.
“This was a great event and was enjoyed by everyone who attended,” said Vanderwal, who didn’t stop there making sure Lake City kids ended the school year with smiles.
She also leveraged grant monies from the United Dairy Industry of Michigan to fund end-of-school-year ice-cream cones for more than 500 Lake City students, from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Teachers at the school made the event as educational as possible, and even incorporated some physical activity by marching their classes to the ice cream shop.
Tasty Treat owner Andy DeBoer took to social media to share his enthusiasm for what’s becoming a Lake City tradition.
“If you've been to Tasty Treat the past couple days, you may have noticed it looks like a bit of a school yard: laughing children enjoying ice cream.
“Every year we partner with the Lake City Elementary to get every kiddo an end-of-the-year sweet treat,” DeBoer said. “We look forward to this tradition as much as these young scholars do!”
DeBoer has proven to be a valuable ally to both the school and Missaukee County Farm Bureau’s outreach efforts, cooperating throughout June is Dairy Month to help spread the gospel of Michigan’s prodigious dairy sector.
Missaukee P&E worked with Tasty Treat on drawings that awarded young people with dairy-related promotional items through the popular parlor.
“Many of our customers enjoyed the free cow tattoos, pencils, stickers and other dairy goodies at our front counter,” DeBoer said. “There were some big smiles!”
“Andy is fantastic to work with and enjoys supporting the dairy industry and all farmers,” said Vanderwal.
Share Story
Article Tags
