When Beth Bordner picked up the Promotion & Education mantle for her county Farm Bureau, she knew Project RED was the first goal she wanted to check off her list. As a county with an urban center in Big Rapids, nestled in a large swath of rural area, there’s still work to be done to help connect kids with where their food comes from.
If you’re not familiar with Project RED, or similar iterations like Ag Awareness Day, they help connect young people to agriculture through a field trip experience. These events, hosted by county Farm Bureaus, often bus students to a farm or venue where a buffet of agricultural learning stations await. Last year, county Farm Bureaus statewide hosted more 15,000 kids at such events.
In some counties it’s been a stalwart program for 35 years, but for Mecosta this was a first.
I was excited to chat with both Bordner and the Mecosta County Administrative Manager Jenn Marfio about what I assumed was years of planning for their inaugural event. In my head, Project RED is an intense production, orchestrated to perfection by amazing county Farm Bureau volunteers. However, our conversations showed me it can also be as simple as you want it to be.
While they did have some groundwork laid, like getting a school contact list, researching other Projects RED, and borrowing templates from neighboring Montcalm County, planning didn’t start in earnest until a few months prior.
For Bordner, having known what it could be was an advantage to the speedy timeframe.
“The biggest piece of advice I can give, if someone hasn’t done one before, is to make sure you go to other counties’ events,” she said. “It’s what helped this go easily; a lot of our volunteers had been involved with other Projects RED and had seen how it can be done.
“So it wasn’t a foreign concept. To do your own you kind of have to know what they’re supposed to look like — the stuff you can’t find on a piece of paper.”
Bordner gave a lot of credit to Marfio for keeping the county committee organized and on track through two months of planning.
“She kept the ball going, picking dates for meetings and contacting sponsors, taking information from the meeting and making it happen. Without her, it wouldn’t have happened.”
Marfio tracked everything in a spreadsheet and focused on reach-outs to volunteers, sponsors and schools. For her, follow-up was the biggest lift.
“A lot of it on my part was just follow-up emails and calls,” Marfio said. “Just keeping the schools motivated and informed can be more challenging than finding presenters. Spring is a busy time, but you have to follow up with people — that’s the biggest thing.
“Planning was less complicated than I thought it was going to be, and not as scary as people make it out to be,” she added. “Honestly there’s so much information out there. You don’t have to totally invent the wheel, it’s out there and it’s been done.”
Bordner agreed:
“We also didn’t make it any more complicated than it had to be. I don’t think it needs to be a super complicated thing.”
One component they simplified was the venue. The county fairgrounds were free, weather-proof and proximate to their large public schools. Secondly, when one of the school systems had a date conflict, they decided to go forward with the schools they had with their eye on ramping up their attendance next year.
“We’re very open to feedback from the teachers about how we can make it better going forward,” Bordner said, “but you have to start somewhere and build from there — rip off the band-aid and do it once.”
Their event not only engaged local schools, but attracted several less-involved members who took the opportunity to help or present after an all-member email went out looking for volunteers. Not only did members engage, but their event also featured multiple stations manned by MSU Extension staff and event sponsors, with tractors brought in by local dealers. Sponsors helped offset the cost of covering the busing for schools and volunteers’ t-shirts. They were also able to send bags and FARM Crates home with teachers.
Looking forward, both Bordner and Marfio have their eye on changes for 2026. This year they started with contacting principals, collecting teachers' names and contact info as they went along, so that next year they can communicate directly — a route they find more responsive.
Hearing all their advice and lessons learned had me wondering what their top tips would be for a county thinking about ripping off the Band-Aid and hosting their first Project RED. There are five key takeaways:
- Reach out to schools early.
- Community participation is not only helpful, it’s welcome. Get your community excited and involve them as volunteers and sponsors.
- Attend other county Farm Bureau’s events and note what you think will work in your county.
- Following-up with speakers, sponsors and schools is key! Remind them of the upcoming event and their role in it is important. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone to follow up.
- Make sure it works for your county. Every Project RED is different. Tailor templates to your county and don’t expect your RED will look just like another county’s.
Ready to start planning? Make sure to check out MFB’s How-to Guide for Hosting Agriculture Education Field Trips for sample school emails, sample job descriptions and fact sheets.
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