Bears Barn brings the farm to the school
by Trinity Gruenberg
The Bertha-Hewitt School has found another way to bring agriculture to the classroom with the Bears Barn.
Teacher Karla Weishalla headed up the barn when the opportunity arose with a grant through Freshwater Education. Teacher Steve Pauly assisted in writing the grant with his vocational license. The grant was approved in July and they quickly started to gather necessary materials for the 14x10 foot barn. Then they had to decide on what animals to get.
Their first, and most popular animal, is a pot bellied pig named Lillie Mae Rae who is about three years old and came to them from Becker.
Then they got two rabbits from the Brandsma family. One rabbit was named Jerome by Barn Manager Riley Kneisl. The other they will have a contest to name. They will soon acquire a few chickens from the Bostic family. They will be females and named after literary characters. . . .