George Ortiz / Roundup
When the Pierce College Farm Center first opened in 2005, Robert McBroom, Director of the farm, envisioned it on growing more by the year, from the Halloween Harvest Festival, the pizza farm and the simulated cow that helps someone learn how to milk a cow. This year, it’s Heritage Days at the farm center.
“In business its either you grow or die, if we are not growing in the field, we are growing our ability to create something that makes that loud factor, that interest factor, and that education factor,” said McBroom.
It will mark a historic day for the farm who will host its first historical Civil War re-enactment featuring President Abraham Lincoln and General Robert E. Lee impersonators.
“They [volunteers] literally will bring all the legendary figures, as well as the social costumes, food culinary, there will be music, and dancing… everything from that time period,” said Dennis Washburn, Executive Director of the Foundation for Pierce College (FPC).
There will be food vendors and settlers—vendors from that period—, booths will be set up for that time. It’s a family oriented experience that will educated the public through both civilian and military impersonation and the farm will transform from its daily farm look , to an authentic and realistic demonstration of the Mid-19th century.
“It’s about that timeline, not about selling ride tickets, not about running a train, not about doing a hay ride, it’s about this program [Heritage Day] everything else tunes out, and the emphasis of the period is the focus,” said McBroom.
As far as to exactly what re-enactments will take place, according to McBroom he is not quite sure yet which ones, there is some development in the timeline, its mostly based on the re-enactors and as they sing up. The information on it will available as soon as it’s made available.
Heritage Day is about good educational program and part of the American culture. According to McBroom “it’s something that we should always remember, always appreciate, and we should always learn from, and to give us an ability to connect within educational values.”
“We looked at a Civil War re-enactment here at the farm center as a perfect way to reach into the campus and into main stream academic and find a value that it can connect with their students with regards in history and political science departments,” he added.
It’s an event to educate the community and to bring a positive outlook to the farm.
According to Kathy Zanghi, Financial Manager of the FPC, someone to wrote an anonymous letter to Pierce College that this event should not take place because it has nothing to do with farming. On the contrary, she said the letter was very inappropriate.
“It’s a historical re-enactment; [the farm] is not a demonstration of guns, a re-enactment on an actual field where the battles occur. An important part of history in our country, it brings people in from the community into our campus, which also introduces people into the farm center on what we sell there,” said Zanghi.
McBroom added, “The reality is, everything that we put on as a farm center model, it is appropriate. It was a unsigned letter that really had no barring to it. We got the approval from the sheriffs in the college that we have limited use for the firearms and the demonstration. It’s nothing out of the norm, and it really shouldn’t be address as a critical issue.”
Joy McCaslin, interim president for Pierce College also added, “I don’t pay any attention to letters that are not signed.”
Heritage Day first brought out to attention by McBroom a couple of years ago, he said that it was most about the timing.
“Everything has to fit within the process with what we do, we are never going to throw anything agriculture related under the bus for our program, this was the time it worked out, the second week of June is something that we can do,” said McBroom.
Heritage Days is an event put on and funded by FPC and a group of volunteers to help raise money for the farm. It’s not costing Pierce College any money, said McBroom.
“The event is put on by the foundation and there will be about three to 400 re-enactors and all are doing this as a favor to us to help us raise money to keep the farm open. To support farming and the activities in the farm,” said Zanghi.
“It’s very expensive to do farming, very labor intensive,” she added.
Sam Guerra, addiction studies major, was at the farm center pondering at the Heritage Day poster when asked about the event.
“I remember was I was younger going to one like this with my dad, now that I’m older I get to take my kids…it’s great, it opens the eye for people and it brings history to live,” he said.
For information on the timeline of the event visit www.piercefarmcenter.com
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