VABF Conference Youth Program

The Virginia Association for Biological Farming is offering a Youth Program for children between the ages of 5-12 during two days of the 21^st annual Conference at The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center.The Program is offered during the concurrent session times of the Conference, which are as follows:

Sunday, January 12, 2020, 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM

Monday, January 13, 2020, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM

The Youth Program is being held in the Mill Mountain room at The Hotel Roanoke and meals are served in the Roanoke Ballroom for all Conference attendees and the children participating in the program. The Youth Program registration fee is $40 and includes lunch and dinner on Sunday and lunch on Monday. Plenty of yummy snacks will be available in the classroom both days, provided by Friendly City Food Co-Op.

Lots of educational and fun activities are planned, all around the conference themes of sustainable living and farming, agro-ecology, earth healing and restoration, as well as making things and having fun!

Planned activities include kids yoga, art projects, games, craft projects, making a medicinal salve, seed saving, garden planning, making seed bombs, mushroom innoculation, making bottle balls from recycled plastic, working with natural dyes and more! An outdoor nature scavenger hunt is planned on Monday. The kids will learn about gardening, how bees make honey, and edible fruit trees. Teacher Nancy Lilly will explore water quality and how water moves through a landscape using a watershed model and team games.

Art and reading stations will be set up in the classroom for self-directed entertainment throughout both days. Various speakers from the conference will visit the classroom to share their knowledge and expertise with the kids, and the kids will also visit the conference exhibits and trade show to see and talk about the displays and products. The program is led by three experienced teachers both days. Children will always be closely supervised and can only be signed out by the registered parent(s) or guardian(s) listed on the registration form. Register at vabf.org! The Youth Program is sponsored by Carter Farms & Carter Brothers.

Experienced Teachers leading the program:

Davey Rogner is the Agriculture Education Specialist for Apple Ridge Farm – a summer camp in Copper Hill, VA which helps underserved students in Roanoke City experience the outdoors and provides STEM based after school programs. He is also the founder and visionary for a start-up called The Harvest Collective, which will be Roanoke City’s first residential food scrap collection program and is concurrently organizing community owned orchards.

In the past he has organized permaculture-based summer camps for high school students, provided permaculture consultations, and organized the nation’s only coast-to-coast roadside litter pick-up which cleared more than 100 tons of litter from a contiguous 3,762 miles. Along his path Davey has spoken to over 10,000 people and been featured in numerous TV and print media encouraging zero-waste and earth stewardship.

Mark Wolfe is a lifelong educator, who has taught many subjects at all levels. Most recently he has worked as a substitute teacher in the Hardy County West Virginia public schools, specializing in K-12 Art, music, and Special Education teaching. He has also taught Alternative Energy, Workforce Development and English as a Second Language in the region.

Mark has a homestead scale farm in West Virginia where he raises a small herd of dairy goats and occasionally makes cheese. He is also working on establishing an edible food forest, medicinal plant gardens, and also makes flower essences. Permaculture, Biodynamics, Non- linear thinking, Sustainability, and Earth healing are organizational concepts that he uses on his farm.

Nancy Lilly is the Stormwater Outreach Coordinator for Lynchburg Water Resources. Currently she is working on projects across city to reduce Stormwater runoff and pollution. She been an environmental educator for the past 8 years specializing in place-based activities. Nancy has worked on SOL based programming and directed grade wide field trips across Lynchburg City Schools. Other work includes leading backcountry trips in Alaska, Colorado, and West Virginia. Nancy moved to the central Virginia area in 2018. She loves working outside and inspiring inquiry into the world around us.

Schedule

Day 1 Sunday, January 12, 2020

The children’s room will have stations set up for self-directed art and reading entertainment throughout the day and snacks are provided.

Time	Program/ Presenter	Details
9:00 am	Welcome, and Orientation/ Program Staff	As Participants arrive we will welcome them into our communal space and introduce all of our locations as well as work out our “rules” for our day. We will get to know each other a little bit and play a game or two, during this time there will be time for self-guided exploration (see individual craft/ exploration)
10:00 am	Seed Bombs/ Davey Stewards	Davey will be leading an interactive activity where we will make seed bombs- small balls full of seeds that make fabulous gifts or can be used to start a pollinator garden.
11:00 am	Africulture/ Michael Carter Jr	Michael will share about his work growing vegetables from Africa.
12:00 pm	LUNCH
1:00 pm	Tour the Trade Show!	We will take a tour of the trade show and bring back reports on some of the special things we found that peaked our interest.
2:00 pm	Winter Gardening/ Rod Thomas	Gardening in the winter? Virginia is great for it! Come join us to learn about hardy seeds and low tunnels. There will also be plants to take home to put in your garden!
3:00 pm	Book Reading and Playground gardens!/ Frank Holzman	Frank will start by sharing one of his favorite books with us: The Man Who Planted Hope and Grew Happiness. Then he will share about his experience building a playground garden!
4:00 pm	Afternoon Yoga/ Mary Cush	Join us for a fun Yoga class before dinner time!

Day 2 Monday, January 13, 2020

The children’s room will have stations set up for self-directed art and reading entertainment throughout the day and snacks are provided.

Time	Program/ Presenter	Details
9:00 am	Welcome, and Orientation/ Program Staff		As Participants arrive we will welcome them into our communal space and introduce all of our locations as well as work out our “rules” for our day. We will get to know each other a little bit and play a game or two. during this time there will be time for self-guided exploration (see individual craft/ exploration)
10:00 am	Fruits in the Garden	Michael McConkey from Edible Landscaping will share about how to add easy to grow fruits to your garden!
11:00 am	Mushrooms!	Mark Jones from Sharondale farms will join us to share and tell about the fascinating world of Fungi!
12:00 pm	LUNCH
1:00 pm	Molding Beeswax/ Alex Tuchman	Alex will share how to use beeswax in many different ways. Talk about bees and flowers, and serve up a mighty tasty honey sampler!
2:00 pm	Water Works!/ Nancy Lilly	Join us on an exploration into how water works on out landscape. We will check out a watershed model and play a team game to explore the properties of water
3:00 pm	Individual craft and exploration/ Mark	There will be several stations around the room to learn about different crafts. Some options include Candle making, natural tye die, leather working, sewing, seed bombs, medicinal balm and more!