Seniors enjoy final A Touch of Country Christmas at RVHS
WARSAW – River View FFA members put in a lot of hard work every year to make A Touch of Country Christmas happen. It’s all worth it though when they see how children react to their event.
“It makes you feel good to see the kids faces when they see Santa or the animals,” said Nathan Gano, a senior at River View High School
The River View FFA Ag Shop was turned into a Christmas wonderland for area youth Dec. 12-13.
“The kids really do enjoy it and when people come and it makes all the work worthwhile,” said Jim Rich, one of the FFA advisors at River View. “We try to do little things different each year like the drawings. The kids come up with ideas for the drawings (used to decorate) and then we trace them. We also have three trees this year. Randy Thomas who works here donated them to us. They are beautiful.”
A Touch of Country Christmas was originally done at Rich’s former Christmas tree farm and was called Rich’s Country Christmas. He and his late wife Karen would have a petting zoo at the farm, Santa would come out from the fields of trees and his wife made refreshments to share with the community.
“One year we had 140,000 (Christmas) lights out in the middle of nowhere,” Rich said. “When I came here to teach we thought it would be a good idea to do the event here.”
A Touch of Country Christmas features a petting zoo, crafts, games, snacks, the chance to meet Santa and pony rides with Tom Roahrig’s Triple R Stables.
“I am one of the main people who decorate,” Gano said. “I worked on building the walls, the wrapping paper and setup. It’s a lot of hours, but the decorations are worth it. I’m going to miss everything about this next year. I enjoy doing it.”
His classmate Michaela Greten also is going to miss working on A Touch of Country Christmas next year.
“I like seeing the kids come in,” she said. “They get all excited when they see Santa.”
Senior Hayden McCoy likes setting up the event for all the little kids.
“They get to have fun and get in the Christmas spirit,” he said. “They also get to learn new things and see new things. I’m going to miss FFA and doing this. I like helping others and doing what we can for the next generation.”
This year also was a final one for Roahrig who is retiring from the pony ride business.
“It’s been a good ride,” he said.
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