By Judy Reed

The FFA club at Cedar Springs High School and several farmers in the area worked together to create a completely new project for the students to learn about agriculture—they tapped maple trees and boiled it down into maple syrup to sell.

According to teacher Larry Reyburn, who leads the FFA, Dave Dunavan and Steve Schmidt approached him about the project, and about six students signed on for it.  Dunavan owns property next to Cedar Springs Middle School on 16 Mile, so he tapped several of his trees, and others there on the school property.

“We had about 125-150 taps in,” said Dunavan.

The students hauled the buckets of sap away and another farmer, Rick Sevey, boiled it down into maple syrup for them.

“They caught on quick,” said Dunavan. “It was a learning process and everyone had a good time. “ He said the busiest time for the sap occurred during spring break, but several of the students showed up anyway.

Reyburn said they ended up with about 10 gallons of syrup to sell to raise money for the group. They sold some at community night, and have been selling it at school. The cost is $12 per pint.

If anyone is interested in buying some to help support the FFA, they can call Larry Reyburn at the high school at 696-1200.