Talk to eighth graders

On Oct. 15, I spoke to two eighth-grade classes at Pierre Moran Middle School in Elkhart about the Friends of the Pumpkinvine. The classes were Business/Marketing and Youth Philanthropy. The teacher, Emily Davidson, has invited 10 area non-profit organizations to address the class to explain what their organization does and how they raise money. After hearing from the 10 non-profits, the class will decide which organization they would like to help with marketing and offer them their services.

I began each class by asking the students how many had heard of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail and how many had ridden on it. It surprised me that out of 37 student, only five or six had heard of the Pumpkinvine and three or four had ridden on it.