Friday, March 2nd– Amidst pouring rain and intense gusts, the school day continued as usual for the students at Essex Technical High School, with one exception. On the ground floor, informational tables were being set up for Taste of Essex; an event organized to give everyone in the school’s community the chance to explore all aspects of agriculture and meet with local farmers, conservationists and more.
This was far from our first collaboration with the school. Last year, the Essex Technical High School hosted our annual meeting and gave a tour of the school’s amazing facilities, including their Natural Resource Management classrooms. More recently, our RiverWatch monitor training was held at the school and teacher Paul Crofts and his students gave presentations and assisted with the training.
Excellent volunteer Joel Hariton braved the weather with me, and reminded the students we spoke with throughout the event that the rain lashing down outside was becoming a part of the Ipswich River and its watershed.
That conservation organizations, and especially an organization concerned with water, were represented at an agriculture event illustrates the strength of the education the students are receiving. Such a holistic approach, demonstrating the importance of water to agriculture, is something that is needed, both today and even more so into the future when considering resource management.
The students who spoke with us at the forum came from many different towns. Some had paddled the Ipswich River and some had never paddled at all. One young man, who lives by the Putnamville Reservoir in Danvers, was surprised to learn the reservoir was supplied by the Ipswich River and ends up as the Beverly/Salem water supply. Many students knew where their water came from; one student from Peabody even chatted with me about how the city had to have its water supplied by the Quabbin Reservoir after the municipal pump station was damaged in a fire.
These students, polite, engaged, and aware, give us hope for a bright and inventive future!