Napa Valley Elementary School Nurtures Its First Harvest

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    RUTHERFORD, Calif., May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Beaulieu Vineyard (BV) and
 Calistoga Elementary School (CES) have developed the first entrepreneurial
 program to educate elementary school students about the local business
 community in Napa Valley.  The program, which kicked off at the start of the
 1998 school year, is directed to the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades and will
 underscore an agricultural education with an emphasis on teaching
 responsibility and "real world" experience.  Already proven successful, the
 partnership has inspired similar programs in the industry.  "Partnerships
 between public schools and the agricultural community, such as the program
 between Beaulieu Vineyard and Calistoga Elementary School, increase
 agricultural awareness and expand career development in California," said
 Delaine Eastin, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
     (Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990504/HSTU156 )
     BV's donation of a half acre vineyard is projected to yield an estimated
 2.5 tons of grapes with a value of $2018 a ton, or $5045 in total.  Students
 who participate in this curriculum will be responsible for reporting on the
 pruning, spring growth, flowering and harvesting of their adoptive vineyard.
 They will also track the growing season financially by paying the various
 labor and equipment costs that are incurred throughout the year and will
 reinvest the profits from the harvest into their school.
     "BV is proud to instill practical values by lending its 100 year expertise
 in farming grapes," said Jeffrey Stambor, winemaker of Beaulieu Vineyard.
     "Our partnership with CES is not merely a donation, it is a collaboration
 to involve and educate the children about the grape industry that is so vital
 to the local economy."
     "Math, reading, science, history, and social science are just a few areas
 of the curriculum where connections to agriculture can be made," said Eastin.
 "While our emphasis is still on basics, there are things which schools can do
 to strengthen students' understanding of agriculture and its fundamental
 importance to us.  School garden projects and other programs linking
 agriculture, nutrition, natural resources, science, and other subject areas
 provide a new and exciting way for students to connect education with issues
 that will impact their lives."
     CES students are expected to cover grape-related studies including soils,
 botany, climate/weather, microbiology, food preservation, and grape
 products/by-products.  At the close of the 1999 growing season, CES students
 will produce a book to include photography, reproductions of sketches and
 watercolors, along with student essays, poetry and interviews with BV grape
 growers.
     Students in the program as well as their teachers, school principal, and
 California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Delaine Eastin, are
 immediately available for interviews.  Color and black and white photographs
 of students taken in their adoptive vineyard are available upon request.
 
 

SOURCE  Beaulieu Vineyard