“The first time I heard about The Patch was in May and it was the first day of work at La Flores Ranch. There were students from Santa Maria , Pioneer Valley, and Righetti. We got to get to know each other and it was  a great experience. What I like about The Patch is that we were able to interact with other students from other schools, getting to know what it takes to be in the agriculture business. I would totally encourage students to join The Patch, it teaches them about agriculture and other aspects of business.” -Hannah Limon(11)

“I like that The Patch offers opportunities to do community service and its helps the students get involved with the community by providing a great place for families to hangout. I like helping the kids out and talking to them about how we all started with The Patch. The benefits are we get community hours, but the best thing is that we get to learn about agriculture, which is great especially if your going to get involved with the FFA and the plantation of pumpkins and corn. I am very excited about The Patch and I hope to be involved in the next 3 years in my high school experience.” -Elizabeth Pantoja(9)

“The whole purpose of The Patch was to help students and the community get involved. Without the community or the students we wouldn’t have an event like this. As an agriculture teacher at Pioneer,  I’ve really seen the importance of  community service. It showed me what students need in Santa Maria. That was the purpose of The Patch, for students not only to engage with agriculture, but also to engage in the community. Community Service is a big part of  what makes Santa Maria so successful and what helps students go to college. That’s what we are trying to accomplish here at The Patch. The support of the students, community of Santa Maria Parks and Recreation Department, and Betteravia Farms coming together to sponsor this event allowed these students to have these experiences. They will take it with them for the rest of their lives, regardless if they want to go into agriculture or not. The friendships and team building they get from our program is what they will take in. The Patch started a year and a half ago and it started from just a simple conversation with the people I’ve been working with and high school friends. We all showed animals at the fair together and we all graduated from college. We wanted to use our strengths to our advantage and put it back into the community. We really wanted to do something for this community, that’s how it all started. A year and a half ago we had this idea and now it is a reality.” -Mr.Dickison

“The Patch is an organization that provides free agricultural opportunities for high school students in our community. It allows  students to get hands on experience and learn about the agricultural field and also to provide a community event and for Santa Maria. The students that participate at The Patch track their hours every time they’re out here, and the  proceeds  from our event will go to people for leisure and youth. This year the event is non profit and they will provide scholarships for a percentage of students depending on their hours. This is my first year and getting to know the kids was great. It’s a learning process for me too because my partner is more experienced with the agricultural life. I kind of get to know the kids and just be a mentor so that’s pretty exciting. We hope we run a better event each year. We also hope we have more pumpkins and more visitors. We are partnered with the Parks & Rec. Department and Betteravia Farms. We are also sponsored by many local AG businesses, but our top sponsors are Guadalupe Hardware and All About AG.”- Corina Posadas (wearing blue shirt)

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