Working to put colorful lids on Ag-Venture kids

The distinctive cowboy hats that each of third graders flaunt throughout the three days of the annual Ag-Venture program have become a welcomed and festive part of the experience.

Pam Fafeita, Activities Director at Reflections on Silver Lake in Avon Park, Cheap NFL hatsis enjoying yet another year of organizing volunteers to help with the hats.

Fafeita and numerous volunteers spend quite a bit of time working to string the hats for all of the third graders that will participate in Ag-Venture each year.

"It takes about a month. They don't work on it non-stop, they take there time and do it sporadically," explained Fafeita.

Thursday morning, the Reflections community center was filled with residents and volunteers. Five huge boxes of were filled to the top with red, green, and yellow straw cowboy hats.

"There are different groups so each group gets a different colored straw hat. Wholesale  NFL hats That way if we see a kid with a red hat in a group of yellows, we know he's at the wrong station," Fafeita said.

This year total number of hats was 1,152. Each student will receive a hat to wear throughout the program and keep.

The volunteers had the hats scattered across several tables and piles of string next to them. "We string the hats, the string we add keeps the hats around their necks and from falling off," explained Fafeita.

The black string is run through the rim of the hat and across to the other side and fed back down. The volunteers then simply tie and cut the string accordingly at a certain length. "It's fairly simple," said many of the volunteers.

Not only does the group spend many hours stringing hats for the third-graders, several of the Silver Lake residents are volunteers at Ag-Venture as well.

Bonnie Ermel is in her fifth year of volunteering at the Ag-Venture program. "I will be at the ornamental horticulture station. We teach them how to grow something different every year. It just amazes me that these kids are able to do this," Ermel said.

Ermel seemed enthusiastic about returning again next month. "The kids keep me going back. Its just great to see them learn," Cheap NBA hatssaid Ermel.

Sandy and Gene Shaffer are also five-year volunteers with the Ag-Venture program. "Watching a child plant something that's never put their hand in the dirt, it's really something to see," said Mrs. Shaffer.

The Shaffers have volunteered at every station, with the exception of the cow station, over the past five years. "This year we will be at the alligator and strawberry stations," said Mr. Shaffer.

The volunteers are enthusiastic and excited about this year's program. They are working diligently to prepare for the students three days at Ag-Venture, which is Oct. 26-28 at the county fairgrounds in Sebring. The hat stringing should be completed by early October.

"The kids are a joy, each year they are great. That's why we keep going back," Ermel said.