Event has raised more than $110,000 for ag scholarships

By TIM HEARDEN

Capital Press

DAIRYVILLE, Calif. -- Matt Madison is certainly familiar with agriculture, living on his grandmother's ranch and helping to care for the horses.

But on Oct. 15, the 12-year-old Red Bluff, Calif., resident got a chance to try his hand with the rope. Matt stood in the schoolyard at Lassen View School here and practiced lassoing a dummy calf, just for fun.

The exercise was part of the Lil' Farmer Corner at the 14th annual Dairyville Orchard Festival, which raises funds for scholarships while celebrating the northern Sacramento Valley's many agricultural products.

"There's a lot of cool stuff here that's free that you don't have to buy like at the fair," Matt said. "There's lots of stuff for adults, too, so there's something for everyone."

Thousands of people attended the all-day festival, which featured a commodities store and some 75 vendor booths showcasing local crops such as walnuts, almonds, olives and olive oil, prunes, honey, wines and other delectables.

The festival has raised more than $110,000 for scholarships, which are given to Tehama County students majoring in some form of agriculture and college freshmen who attended Lassen View School.

At the Lil' Farmers Corner, children dipped cut pieces of fruit in paint for a stamp-art project, made necklaces with colored beads representing different aspects of farming, and made "moo masks" -- cow masks fashioned out of paper plates.

"We are trying to teach the kids about agriculture as well as giving them something fun to do," said Tehama County Farm Bureau manager Kari Dodd, who was overseeing the youth area.

The activities impressed Cari Novo, whose 5-year-old daughter, Zoey, was doing the fruit-stamp project.

"I think this is wonderful," Novo said. "It's just a nice thing for the kids to do, and for families to come out and see what the community is doing."