Columbus, OH……. American Agri-Women (AAW) met last week for their annual policy-setting meeting in Columbus, Ohio. After an exciting exchange with Provider Pals founder Bruce Vincent, a Montana logger, AAW members made plans to work with him to help promote the Provider Pals’ website for children, a game called Provider World. This site provides children a safe environment in which to explore farming and other natural resource-based occupations, through exciting games and activities.
This site is an extension of the main Provider Pals program in which classrooms adopt a logger, fisherman, miner, farmer or rancher as their very own for a year. The children receive videos, letters, photo albums and e-mails from their provider, and once a year he visits the school to talk and answer questions. The program got off the ground in 1997 and has since expanded to include over 300 classrooms in 20 cities across the nation and Canada, addressing the question, “Where does my stuff come from?”
The Provider World web site offers AAW members a unique avenue for reaching thousands of children to give them accurate information about farmers and how important farming is to them. The women took immediate action by collecting individual donations to sponsor a classroom for a year on the website, and are planning to look into further fund-raising possibilities.
In other actions taken at their yearly mid-year meeting, members took a stand for responsible management of horses and other farm animals and opposed the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act as introduced in Congress in January 2007, and all other attempts on the local and state level to outlaw horse slaughter.
American Agri-Women is the nation’s largest coalition of farm, ranch and agribusiness women, with 50 state, commodity, agribusiness affiliate organizations and collegiate chapters throughout the country. AAW is an all volunteer organization, working to provide reliable information about agriculture to the public since 1974.
For more information about AAW’s positions on a wide range of agricultural topics, contact Marcie Williams, President,
president@americanagriwomen.org, or visit their website at
http://www.americanagriwomen.org.