Kids Zone needed diversion at fair

By TOM LAVENTURE

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Ironwood - After taking in the midway attractions and kids and parents want a break from the fun and excitement of the Gogebic County Fair they head inside the exhibition hall to visit the Kids Zone.

The Kids Zone is a collaboration of Michigan State University Extension, the Great Start Collaborative, and Communities That Care of Gogebic County. Organizers said they wanted to offer something that would be fun, educational and slow things down a little.

"We are always thinking about family oriented things to bring to the fair," said Crystal Suzik, parent liaison for the Great Start Collaborative and coordinator for Communities, and a Gogebic County Fair board member. "We want things that are going to encourage people to get out and enjoy the weather and the fair grounds and to be part of something in the community."

The activities are based on mindfulness and centering the self, she said. It's also a way to connect families to the services the organizations provide in a fun outreach sort of way.

"We try to bring families together," Suzik said. "Our organizations are all about families, togetherness and encouragement for families to do these activities together."

MSU Extension staff, Erin Ross, educator, and Anita Carter, program instructor, said the Kids Zone just completed its fifth year at the fair. Each year they introduce various arts and crafts projects that the kids can do themselves and bring the item home with them.

"The beading has been the most popular activities," Carter said. "They take their time."

There are also coloring items and a bee hotel project. The activity has a bee awareness message about the importance of bees to the food chain by pollinating flowers, vegetables and fruits.

The bee hotels are a modified plastic water bottle that is designed to attract queen bees to lay eggs so the eggs and hatchlings have a better chance of survival, Carter said.

Kids were also flocking to the Foundry in a Box, a three-year-old program provided by Waupaca Foundry, with plants in Wisconsin, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, and a new grinding facility in Ironwood.

"We do this for schools all over Wisconsin, said Mike Borchardt, a production manager in the Waupaca Foundry plant in Iola, Wisconsin. "Now that we started a shop up here in Michigan, they want us to come up here to the fair and in the schools to show kids what things can be done in life."

The kids show a lot of interest and enjoy making something themselves, he said. They are excited about the process from packing a mold with sand, to pouring molten metal into the mold, and grinding and finishing the product with plastics, he said.

David Peterson, a molding supervisor from the Almond, Wisconsin plant, said he has enjoyed coming to the area for years to snowmobile and jumped at the chance to run the kids foundry program in Ironwood. The program mirrors the manufacturing process and serves as a recruiting tool for youth.

"Definitely, there is a moment when the kids open up the two halves of the mold and they get a wow look on their face and that is what I really like," Peterson said. "They are seeing the manufacturing process by using their own hands to turn raw material into something they are going to play with like a fidget spinner."