Field Trip to Mickman Brothers Garden Center!

Wilson Elementary School Field Trip

Zachary's Letter

As some of you know, I’ve been writing stories about some of my adventures (and misadventures!) and sharing many of them online with you. A couple of years ago I was asked by a since retired teacher at Wilson Elementary in Anoka if I would share some of these stories with her writing class. I was delighted!

Desaya's Letter

Since that time I have visited Wilson Elementary many times to share stories and talk about writing with these wonderful children. It truly does make my day each time I visit and am re-invigorated when I return to work. Once again last week I shared two of my stories with two writing classes at Wilson and was rewarded not only with the enriching experience, but also with individual letters of thanks by each of the kids. The letters above are examples of these notes.  Click here to read Zachary's letter.  Click here to read Desaya's letter.

Planting their flowers!

Each of the kids was enthusiastic about a visit to Mickman Brothers, so yesterday we were treated to a field trip by the kids to our company with 120 wonderful 4th graders.  They came at two different times and we broke them up into 3 groups of 20 children each, led by either Sara Laning, Wanda Shelmidine or me.  It took nearly an hour for the tours which included each child planting an annual ‘plug’ into a 4” pot. One can only imagine what kind of a ‘fire-drill’ that turned out to be! Each child was able to choose the type of flower they wanted to plant and they did a wonderful job transplanting and ‘watering in’ each of their plants to take home to their parents. What fun!

During the tour we all talked about the jobs each of us do at Mickman Brothers and how much we enjoy ‘doing what we do’. Our trade association, the MN Nursery and Landscape Association supplied pens and book markers for each child encouraging them to go online to thelandlovers.org to learn more about career opportunities in the Green Industry. A couple of the kids told me they’d like to grow up and have a job just like my daughter Mariah (that they met during the tour) who is an Urban Forester graduate from the U of M.

Thanks again for the wonderful teachers and staff at Wilson Elementary for making this all possible. It is great to meet and know some of the many individuals that make our school systems rewarding in so many ways!

John S. Mickman

President
www.mickman.com