North Harford had their yearly Earth Day and Tractor Day celebration on Friday April 25. This has been a North Harford tradition for many years. The earth day events include students bringing their tractors to school, many kinds of animals, plants, and presentations by students about the enviorment.
The art program also participated as they offered face painting, and sold different kinds of jewelry. This year there was also an addition from the fishing club where students were able to fish out of the pond.
Mrs. Laura O’Leary (agriculture teacher) shares that the NRAS (National resource agricultural science) students “present a poster and an activity” throughout the day; it’s their “SAE project.” She says it’s also her Chesapeake Bay class that participates and they’re supposed to come up with a poster on their year long project.
The large animal students also open up the barn she shares and there’s “all kinds of cool animals” that come. She also shares Mrs. Densmore makes sure that everyone is certified to bring in their tractors.
Outside groups also come and participate including the middle schoolers and elementary schools get a chance to come over for a little bit and hangout. “It’s overall just a fun day” she shares and a nice way to be outside and to learn about the environment. She says North Harford has been doing this for as long as she has been here–28 years.
O’Leary shares that she is basically the “Earth Day Dictator.” She loves that it’s this big tradition and a nice day to highlight what some of their kids are doing in class as well. It can also be horrible, she says kids can be rude and cause trouble.
Mrs. Aimme Densmore (agriculture teacher) also helps out and plans earth day. She says that kids drive their tractors to school that have their certification, and she makes sure they all have the proper id. “We put the barns open and students are there to tell people about the different animals we have”. Her kids also have their “SAE projects” she shares, that they have been working on all year that they display outside.
Densmore says what she most enjoys about this day is “everybody seeing what we do and what they have out there” and learning about agriculture and the environment and how everyone comes together. She also adds it’s a nice fun day in the spring for everybody. She says during the event she “monitors the barn and the students” and makes sure everything is running smoothly.
Junior Ryan Chaney ran a fishing booth and shared that his topic was about four species in the North Harford High School pond. They had “bamboo cane poles for everyone to fish with” he explains. Chaney shares his favorite part about the day was “watching people have fun catching fish.” He said, “a lot of people caught their first fish that day.”
He also shares that the biggest struggle he faced “was getting people to listen and taking turns with the fishing rods.”
Senior Norah McElwain shares that she ran the “floral design booth.” She also had help from seniors Lily Heath, Bryn Cespedes and Grace Mueller. They sold small bouquets and she notes “it’s a good way for them to help make money for the program.” According to McElwain, her favorite part about the day was “being outside.”
