MOOSEHEART, IL, March 18 -- To many people driving south on Randall Road from Batavia toward North Aurora, one of the major sights as they look to the east is the Mooseheart campus, spread out over more than two miles from Batavia's Main Street to Mooseheart Road.

From Randall, two buildings stand prominently, the tower of the House of God several hundred yards in the distance, and the cattle barn, much closer to the road. And while the children of Mooseheart cannot be seen from the road, there are often cattle grazing in the fields that run nearest to the roadway. It is a brief agricultural glimpse in an otherwise urban landscape.

For three days this week, Mooseheart hosts the Kane County Farm Bureau's Ag Days Expo, an annual hands-on educational experience that gives over 2,000 fourth-graders from throughout the Fox Valley a chance to learn about farming and its role in their lives. The expo began Monday, March 17, concludes Wednesday, March 19 and is timed to take place during National Agriculture Week.

To many in an increasingly urban county, the moments when students come in contact with those engaged in agribusiness are sometimes frustrating, said Diane Duncan, a fourth-grade teacher at Ferson Creek School in St. Charles.

"Some of these kids will have to stop on occasion to wait for a combine or a tractor," Duncan said. "And they will moan and groan and complain about it. Now that they realize why those vehicles are there and that they have a right to the road too.  We remind them to be patient and appreciate what they do."

Duncan grew up in St. Charles and her family has a farm on Keslinger Road. She has taught at Ferson Creek for each of the 20 years the school has been in existence.

"It used to be that we had a lot of farm kids, and we don't have anyone who lives on a farm any more," Duncan said. "A few of them have parents or grandparents who grew up on a farm, like I do, so they hear the stories. But to see how the agriculture ties into their daily lives -- they're in a void with it."

According to the Census of Agriculture, which is created by the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there were 619 farms in Kane County in 2002, and these totaled 198,227 of the county's 335,000 square acres. This figure was down 8 percent from the 1997 farm acreage total and 100,000 acres from the number of acres in farming in 1945.
But nearly 60 percent of the county is still engaged in farming, although less than 10 percent of the county's residents participate in agribusiness.

Duncan said she has been bringing students to Ag Days for most of the last decade, though state testing sometimes interferes with those plans.

"Even though we have fields around where they live, they really have no appreciation about what it takes to plant the crops, the equipment needed and the money that needs to be invested or the career opportunities that are provided," Duncan said.

The Mooseheart Fieldhouse has been transformed into a living classroom. In the south end of the Fieldhouse, there is a selection of farm animals, including some from the Mooseheart Petting Zoo. Here, students can touch a goat, sheep or miniature horse.

Students then tour a series of booths, which are manned by a variety of agricultural presenters. In the Dairy booth, Julie Drendel and her mother Linda Drendel were talking about from where students get their dairy products and how important it is to have dairy products in their diets. The Drendels own Lindale Holsteins in Hampshire.

"I've been helping at Ag Days since I've been in high school, so for 10 years I've been helping with the program," Julie Drendel said.

Drendel said she looked forward to seeing the area students and answering their many questions.
"It's a great way for everyone in agriculture to talk to kids who maybe don't know very much about agriculture," Drendel said. "It's a way to educate them about the different products. For example, I think it's important to tell them why it's important to drink milk."

The creeping suburban sprawl reached Hampshire recently, and it is no longer the completely rural community it once was.

"I used to tell people that we were the first non-suburb," Drendel said. "We are becoming a suburb. That's why events like (Ag Days) are more important. Our entire family is involved in the farm. And our farm is only 30 miles north of (Mooseheart)."

At the south parking lot, there are massive pieces of modern farm equipment, and Future Farmers of America students to discuss how the equipment is used. There are also two 1930s vintage tractors that will be used at the Primrose Farm Park living museum in St. Charles this summer, which make for an interesting contrast with today's farming behemoths.

Celebrating its 25th year, Ag Days has been hosted by Mooseheart since the mid-1990s.

"It's wonderful here," said Suzi Myers, Ag Literacy Coordinator for the Kane County Farm Bureau. "The people at Mooseheart have been great hosting us here. The kids get to see that the farmers are people, and then they get to see how huge the machines are."

Mooseheart Child City & School is a 1,000-acre community and school for children and teens in need of a secure home, located just south of Batavia, IL, between Illinois Route 31 and Randall Road.

Founded in 1913, Mooseheart is supported completely through private donations - the great majority of which come from the 1.1 million men and women of the Moose fraternal organization, in more than 1,900 Lodges and 1,600 Chapters located throughout the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and Bermuda. Moose International headquarters is located on the Mooseheart campus.

Since its founding, Mooseheart has operated a complete, accredited kindergarten-through-high-school academic program, plus art, music, vocational training and interscholastic sports. It is an extremely nurturing and student-tailored program, with an average student-teacher ratio of 12-1.

Mooseheart students who complete their studies with a 3.0 GPA or better (4.0=A) are eligible for up to five years of annually renewable scholarship funding, covering tuition, room and board in an amount comparable to that required for an in-state student at an Illinois public university.

Mooseheart is currently home to roughly 230 students, ranging in age from preschoolers to high school seniors. Applications for admission to Mooseheart are considered from any family whose children are, for whatever reason, lacking a stable home environment. Mooseheart boasts its own U.S. Post Office and a fully functioning branch of Fifth Third Bank.

In addition to Mooseheart, Moose International also supports Moosehaven, a 70-acre retirement community near Jacksonville, FL founded in 1922; and conducts more than $90 million worth of community service programs annually.

Founded in 1888, the Moose organization has long offered its members an opportunity to do good for others while celebrating life, with family, social, and sporting activities. For more information on the Moose organization, visit www.mooseintl.org or www.mooseheart.org, or call 630-966-2229.