School Hosts Horticulture 'Field Day' During College Open House
Friday, March 30, 2012
Sixteen students participated in the School of Natural Resources Management's second annual High School/CTC/AVTS Field Day, held in conjunction with Penn College's Spring Open House on March 24. Various students from each of the schools Derry Area High School (with seven students and instructor Roy Campbell); Franklin County Career and Technology Center (with six students and instructor David G. Perry, a 1992 Penn College landscape/nursery technology alumnus); and Cumberland Perry AVTS (with Malena Perry and three students) participated in eight competitions: Landscape Plant Identification, Landscape Construction (brick patio), Landscape Equipment Safety and Operation (Dingo and ZRT Mower), Sales Presentation (of a provided landscape design), Landscape Estimation, Floral Design (floral landscape design); Flowers to Wear (floral corsage), and Floral Identification. Ten alumni conducted Open House tours or were competition judges; with a dozen or more Penn College horticulture students assisting with Open House, setting up Field Day competitions, cooking or helping the judges. Certificates were awarded for the first three places in each category. The school also gave away more than 75 door prizes donated by the college and industry, including a pair of Felco pruners, a pruning saw and various other small hand tools, Penn College backpacks with program-specific recruiting materials, T-shirts, caps and pens from various horticulture companies and more than 30 flowering plants donated by the general manager of VanHoekelen's Greenhouses (Timothy P. Martonik, a 1985 floriculture graduate) so students and teachers alike went home with their arms full, very happy that they visited the college! Photos by Stephen L. Petro, '10, ornamental horticulture: plant production emphasis