By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Each fall, there's a special day when area fourth graders head out of the classroom and onto the farm. Kids Ag Day is shaping up to be a little extra special for the Koelsch family on Sept. 7. Josh Koelsch was part of the first group of fourth graders to experience an Ag Day nearly three decades ago. Josh hosted last year's Ag Day, and their daughter, Lennon, gets to experience her first Kids Ag Day this year.
"That's pretty exciting to think I was the first class and now she's going into it at nine years old," Josh said. "It's kind of cool to see that space in between and still see Kids Ag Day is going strong. I know my daughter's really excited about having it at our farm and she gets to be out here."
Josh's father, Ron Koelsch, was on the Ag Committee that helped create Kids Ag Day in 1994. The committee picked fourth graders for the event, and Josh lucked into his first Ag Day.
"The first year we went around touring farms, and we were trying to figure out whether to do fourth, fifth, or sixth grades," Ron said. "We found out the fifth and sixth grades already had activities, so that's why we went with fourth grade at that time. It just happened to be my son was a fourth grader that year."
The first Ag Day was held at 4M Farm owned by Kevin Mauler, and the event remained there for the next nine years. Since then, Ag Day has been held at the late Roger Brining's farm near the airport once, but has mostly switched back and forth between 4M and Diamond K, the farm operated by the Koelsch family.
"We're looking for other locations," said Ron. "We'd like to give other people a chance, but we have to have an area to be able to spread out so the kids can move around from place to place. Kevin's was a perfect location, and our farm has been working really well for it. It seems like the kids and teachers enjoy it."
Twenty-eight years have passed since that first Kids Ag Day, but Josh still remembers the hayrack rides and getting to share the farm experience with classmates.
"You get to get out here around the crops and machinery, and you get to have an understanding of what's going on in rural America," he said. "Kids that grew up in the city don't really have an understanding of that. Being part of Kids Ag Day gives them an understanding and awareness of how important farming is and what it provides for our nation. I think it does give excitement to the kids to see these wide-open spaces, all this big machinery, and what it takes to grow a crop."
Ron handed the farm over to Josh on Jan. 1 this year. Diamond K has been in the family for five generations dating back to 1876. A full-time farmer for the last 15 years, Josh said he still takes something away from Ag Day each year.
"I still am reminded about the importance of teaching about agriculture and making them aware of what's going on out here, and what food is being provided for our nation each year through what farmers do for us," he said. "Even at 37 years old, I still learn something at the Kids Ag Day."
On Sept. 7, Lennon gets to see her own farm from a new perspective: not as a farm girl but just as a fourth grader.
"I think she'll just come out with her fourth-grade class," Josh said, "and just be excited that she gets to tell everybody this is the farm she's grown up on."