Lakeside student cashes in for growing large cabbage

Carmen Galloway, 10, a fourth-grader at Lakeside Intermediate School in Hot Springs, received a $1,000 check from Bonnie Plants as the Arkansas winner of last year’s Kids Grow Green: Cashing in Cabbage national campaign for third-graders, which is part of the National Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program.
Carmen Galloway, 10, a fourth-grader at Lakeside Intermediate School in Hot Springs, received a $1,000 check from Bonnie Plants as the Arkansas winner of last year’s Kids Grow Green: Cashing in Cabbage national campaign for third-graders, which is part of the National Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program.

HOT SPRINGS — Carmen Galloway sat quietly in the front row of the auditorium at Lakeside Intermediate School in Hot Springs as her classmates filed in for an assembly. She would soon take the stage, where she would be the center of attention.

Carmen, 10, recently won $1,000 from Bonnie Plants for growing a hefty cabbage. Representatives from Bonnie Plants, a national plant wholesaler based in Union Springs, Alabama, and the Arkansas Agriculture Department congratulated Carmen and presented her with a hefty check during the assembly.

Carmen, who is now in the fourth grade, was one of 23,358 third-grade students in Arkansas who participated in the 2015 Kids Grow Green: Cashing in Cabbage national campaign for third-graders, which is part of the National Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program. Each third-grade class in the state that participates in the program names a Best in Class winner, who then participates in the Best in State competition. Carmen’s entry was randomly selected as the Best in State winner by the Arkansas Agriculture Department.

“We are here to show how proud we are of Carmen and how much we appreciate her family and school for supporting her and this program,” said Wes Ward, secretary of agriculture, as he presented the check to Carmen.

Carmen is the daughter of Crystal Huckaby and Darrell Galloway and the granddaughter of Tonya Jasnocha, who is Huckaby’s mother. All live in Hot Springs.

Carmen’s grandmother said the cabbage weighed 10 to 12 pounds.

“She brought it home in March and grew it until about June,” said Jasnocha, who noted that Carmen spends a lot of time at her house. “My two younger children, Nathan, 15, and Jaclyn, 13, who also attend Lakeside schools, participated in the program when they were in the third grade.

“They both grew cabbages, but they were not as successful as Carmen,” Jasnocha said, smiling. “But we knew what to do when Carmen brought her cabbage home.”

Carmen said the cabbage was “little bitty” when she brought it home.

“I watered it every day,” she said. “I had fun doing it.”

Carmen said that after she learned she was the state winner, she came to school and told her classmates.

“They did not believe me,” she said with a smile.

Jasnocha said Carmen had a choice of receiving the prize money as a savings bond or cash.

“She chose the cash,” Jasnocha. “She wants to use part of it to by a Wii U [Nintendo home video-game console].”

“We are super proud of her,” said Sandy Hawkins, principal at Lakeside Intermediate School. “She is a sweet kid.”

Cathy Ellis, greenhouse manager for the Bonnie Plant Farm in Lonoke, said the cabbage program for third-graders was launched in 2002.

“This is the second time Lakeside has had the state winner,” she said. “There must be good soil here.

“Every year, Bonnie Plants gives out approximately 30,000 cabbage plants to third-grade students in Arkansas who want to participate in the program,” Ellis said.

“This unique, innovative program exposes children to agriculture and demonstrates, through hands-on experience, where food comes from,” Cope said in a statement on the company’s website, www.bonnieplants.com. “The program also affords our youth with some valuable life lessons in nurture, nature, responsibility, self-confidence and accomplishment.”

Registration for the 2015-2016 Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program is on the company’s website. Bonnie Plants will truck 2-inch cabbage plants to every registered third-grade classroom in the country, and delivery will be scheduled based on geographic region. The deadline to register for the program is Feb. 15.

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