Students, locals celebrate Ag Day
Published: Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Updated: Tuesday, May 1, 2012 02:05
 "Photo: Amelia Wang")
Amelia Wang
A beekeeper shows Ag Day attendees a collection of the honey-making insects on Saturday.
 "Photo: Amelia Wang")
Amelia Wang
Local residents pet a cow at Saturday’s Ag Day, an annual tradition.
Despite an overcast sky and chilly temperatures, thousands of students and local residents tried horseback riding and roamed petting zoos at the 37th annual Ag Day this weekend.
Ag Day, an annual event hosted by the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, was held on the grounds surrounding Townsend Hall Saturday, to educate visitors about nature and agriculture.
Katy O’Connell, the college’s communication manager and head of the Ag Day committee, stated in an email message that the committee members were worried that an overnight forecast calling for frost on Friday would negatively affect the event. Despite the cold weather, approximately 5,000 people attended.
“It’s great to be able to get the message of agriculture to the thousands of people who come visit every year, for whom agriculture isn’t something that they think about on a daily basis, like we do,” O’Connell said.
Sophomore Kelsey Schwenk, a wildlife conservation major and member of the Ag Day committee, said it was exciting to see people enjoying the event she put so much work into planning for.
“Seeing all of our ideas put into action [was my favorite part of the day],” Schwenk said.
An entomology exhibit featured live and preserved insects, such as butterflies and baby praying mantises. Holly Johnson, a graduate student studying entomology, said several students were running the booth as part of a first-year entomology course.
This was her third year participating in Ag Day, and although it was too cold for the cockroach races she normally organizes, she said it was still enjoyable.
“It is so much fun to be here and talk to people and teach them not to be scared of insects,” Johnson said.
Freshman Elizabeth Vacchiano, who represented the student-run group Puppy Raisers of the University of Delaware, said people visited the exhibit to pet the dogs and learn more about the club.
“Earlier we had a training circle so people can see how the dogs act and are trained,” Vacchiano said.
Employees of UDairy Creamery, who were celebrating their one-year anniversary of the creamery’s opening, sold ice cream at various stations.
Newark resident Kristie Joannides, 32, attended Ag Day with her friends and children, who jumped up and down on small blocks of hay near an insect exhibit.
“It’s very educational,” Joannides said. “It’s definitely something for the kids, for sure.”
University alumna and Newark resident Heather Iverson, 34, said she has visited Ag Day in the past and came to enjoy the festival’s events and entertainment with friends.
“It’s super educational, but it’s fun stuff,” Iverson said.
O’Connell said her favorite part of Ag Day was seeing the student organizers’ hard work come together.
“There’s always a point somewhere around 2 p.m. on Ag Day where the chatter on the walkie-talkies quiets down and the students are actively doing what needs to be done and Ag Day crowds are at their peak and everything is running smoothly, and I get this sense of motherly pride for them,” O’Connell said. “That’s my favorite part by far.”
2 comments
"What are University of Delaware security guards headed up to Lancaster Pa for anyway? You are not dangerous. Jail is for Dangerous people, and you are certainly not one of them. I am not going to put you in jail. Did this attorney communicate with you at all? where did you get this guy. He is no good. He isn't helping you. Get rid of him. There is nothing wrong with you. what do they have you on? You are not nutz. What kind of deal did these two give you? Tell me. What is he whispering? What did he say? don't listen to him. Yes I will see your evidence. Any evidence you have. You are from York and this happended in Lancaster? This doesn't make any sense. What are University of Delaware security guards headed up to Lancaster Pa for anyway? This is weird.", Judge Jerome O. Herlihy of the Delaware superior court words in late December of 2010 to the sociologist, who blew the whistleblower on Harrisburg Area Community College in lancaster pa. He filed complainst:PHRC Case No.200800802 and EEOC Case No.17F200960329 against Harrisburg Area Community College in Lancaster Pa. The complaints consisted of 60+ counts of harassment and discrimination. An hostile enviroment, and a mobbing of a professor. The sociologist was the third professor to have this happen to him in less then three years, and fourth person if you count the H-O-M-O-S-E-X-U-A-L who was discriminated against and chased off at Harrisburg Area Community College in Lancaster. Ten months after the formal complaints reached HACC in Lancaster, and three weeks before the Pa Governor demanded a response for the HACC in Lancaster Pa, the professor was arrested and his house was broken into through the window. He was accused of wanting to blow up the University of Delaware and kill more kids then virginia tech. He was accused of being DANGEROUS, aggressive, a racist, on drugs, unstable, a time-bomb, a loose cannon, and that he had "WEAPONS". The sociology professor that blew the whistle on HACC in lancaster was a pacifest that never owned a gun in his life. He was reasonable man, that never did drugs in his life. They busted in through the window, three weeks before the PA GOVERNOR demanded a response to the 60 counts of harassment and discrimination. This was ten after the formal complaints had reached HACC in Lancaster Pa. PA STATE TROOPER watching the events, and monitoring the University of Delaware security called the professor 3x and stated the following, "I have never seen an investigation like this. This certainly isn't state police protocol, nor any I have ever seen. We call people. We talk to people. We communicate with people, and we just don't come out and bust into people houses. 90% of the stuff they took had nothing to do with any charges. You should get all back. This doesn't make any sense. You don't have any guns. They were going through personal things of yours, and taking pictures. I don't get this. They were walking across the street during a mid summer afternoon during a weekday. they were walking directly to people houses they knew were home. They were talking to them as if they knew them. I am just the middle here. I don't get this." The house was broken into, and college books were taken, the professor ex-girlfriend gifts of polo shirts were piled up in the middle of the bed, and his three army medals on the dresser, that he earned from his three honorable discharges vanished. The professor was placed in jail at 15x to 30x the normal amount, and a freemason journalist named OLE' FREEMASON AD CRABLE at the Lancaster paper quickly placed the professor on the internet 12x, internet black balling, and internet black listing the whistle blower professor. Grandpa used to call this, "the white glove treatment" but today since we have the internet, and other social scientist studying these items we call it: "felony" retaliation of a whistleblower, academic mobbing, community based mobbing of a whistleblower, corporate stalking of a whistleblower, and organized cause stalking or terror stalking. Three weeks after the house was broken into up in Lancaster the 70+ counts of harassment and discrimination on formal complaints:PHRC CASE No.200800802 and EEOC Case No.17F200960329 were finally answered by HACC in Lancaster, and the police reports from the University of Delaware were obtained by Natalie Woolshin, and they were both riddled with lies. Thanks for allowing me to express my freedom of speech through the freedom of the press. Thank god we still have those rights...
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