Neosho 2nd grade students organize annual Bloom Festival

NEOSHO, Mo. (KOAM) - Elementary school students in Neosho were encouraged to show their entrepreneurial spirit to help support a good cause.

For second grade students at George Washington Carver Elementary School , learning how to run a farmer's market is just part of the curriculum.

Students are learning about bees in the area nd what problems they are facing with declining populations.

Teachers asked the students to think like conservationists and plan a way to help the bees.

"They came up with having and hosting the Bloom Festival again and selling plants and pollinator flowers that are native to our area that can really help with the reproduction of bees," says Ashley Pogue, teacher.

The Bloom Festival is now an annual event where students sell not only plants they have grown themselves, but also crafts they have made such as key chains and canvas bags.

Jovina Mafnas helped create coasters for the event. She says it's exciting to see people want to buy them.

"It makes me feel amazing and nice because we worked hard on these coasters and we've been hoping for people to buy them," says Jovina.

Hadley Lewis is one of the students who helped tag the plants for sale. She agrees that seeing the public interested in their work was a great part of the event.

“It makes me feel good that I know people actually like the stuff that we make," says Hadley.

Every year funds raised at the Bloom Festival go to a different charity or cause. This year the cause hits close to home.

"We have a fourth grade teacher here at George Washington Carver and her son had a medical event," says Pogue. "He had multiple hospital stays, and now he requires, speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy and round the clock care. And so we are going to help pay for some of those therapies for him that he'll need for the foreseeable future.”

Students say the Bloom Festival is allows for them to grow closer with their classmates all while supporting a good cause.

"It makes you feel good. That's nice because helping is a good thing to do for some people," says Jovina.

Hadley agrees, saying "I like to help other people."

This year's Bloom Festival also included a raffle raising funds for a Neosho elementary school student diagnosed with brain cancer.

COPYRIGHT 2024 BY KOAM NEWS NOW. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.