By Mike Orso
McHenry County Farm Bureau’s (MCFB) annual Draw Down event on March 7 helps raise foundation funds to support countywide efforts to increase knowledge about the food and farming sector with the non-farm public. Now helping lead many of the activities is Becca Sprague, 31, of Harvard, MCFB’s new Agriculture Literacy Coordinator.
“The thing I’m most excited about is helping not just kids but people in general realize that agriculture is so much more than putting a seed in the ground, covering it with soil and praying for it to rain,” said Sprague. “To get to say that I helped someone learn that their food just doesn’t come from the backstock room of the grocery store, just doesn’t magically appear, that’s a win for me.”
Born in the Winnebago County village of Roscoe, Ill., she lived on a rural Harvard farm in McHenry County for part of her childhood and teen years, helping to milk cows and raise calves. In 2010, the family sold its dairy cows and moved from the farm.
“It got to the point where the bank couldn’t help us anymore and milk prices weren’t that great and it just wasn’t enough to make ends meet,” said Sprague. “It was devastating. Every time I drive by that farm, it’s very nostalgic. I loved and adored that farm. It’s very sentimental to me.”
Determined to keep agriculture part of her life, she spent a portion of her 2012-13 senior year at schools in Hononegah and Poplar Grove. Located in neighboring Boone County, North Boone High School offered Sprague the opportunity to take agricultural courses and be involved in the FFA Organization. She enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville after high school and studied agriculture education. Since then, she has worked part of her time with youth in various jobs.
“I always believe there is an opportunity to help educate people or expand their knowledge on something,” said Sprague. “For me that’s what’s most exciting, helping kids realize that there are a lot of opportunities within agriculture besides driving a tractor and raising animals.”
For more than 25 years, MCFB has shared information about food and farming with teachers and youngsters throughout McHenry County through a dedicated staff person to coordinate in-and-out of school efforts. Sprague will work with Dan Volkers, MCFB Manager, and Kelly Sadowski, MCFB Membership and Agriculture in the Classroom Assistant, to help carry out a wide variety of activities. They include the organization’s biennial Ag Expo for school children throughout the county, April 7-9 at the McHenry County Fairgrounds, and the Summer Agriculture Institute (SAI) for county teachers, June 16-19, held with the Lake County Farm Bureau.
“We are excited to have Becca join our team as the coordinator,” said Volkers. “We are hoping to expand the number of teachers and classrooms we reach annually through our Agriculture in the Classroom program.”
Volkers notes the organization reached more than 1,600 elementary school students through its pumpkin program last fall and more than a dozen McHenry County teachers who participated in the SAI last summer.
“We know we didn’t get to visit every school district,” he said. “To help address that, we hope to do more teacher in-services to help them incorporate more agriculture into their existing curriculum”.
Sprague believes she’s up for the challenge and credits her late stepfather, Kevin Gregory of Woodstock, for providing opportunities for her on the family’s former dairy farm and beyond.
“He was very passionate about agriculture, about working with the next generation and helping them find what makes them happy, what their dreams are, what they want to achieve, whether that was in agriculture or not,” she said. “That has always stuck with me. For me to carry on that legacy and get to do it in McHenry County, which is where he grew up and went to school, it means the world to me.”
A few tickets remain for the 3rd Annual Draw Down. The event, held Saturday March 7 at the Harvard Moose, includes a prime rib and fried shrimp buffet dinner, a loaded, baked potato and salad bar, along with two beverages of your choice. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with the buffet starting at 6:00 p.m.
Preparations continue for McHenry County Farm Bureau’s (MCFB) annual Draw Down, which supports the organization’s agriculture literacy efforts. Tickets remain for the Saturday, March 7 event to be held at the Harvard Moose. From left at the organization’s office in Woodstock, Dan Volkers, MCFB Manager, Kelly Sadowski, MCFB Membership & Agriculture in the Classroom Assistant, and Becca Sprague, MCFB Agriculture Literacy Coordinator.
Becca Sprague, the new agriculture literacy coordinator for MCFB, spent part of her youth on a Harvard area dairy farm and studied agriculture education at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. (Photo provided by Becca Sprague)