Lodi vineyards donate pumpkins to local school
Students at Ellerth E. Larson Elementary School in Lodi took turns lining up to receive free pumpkins, donated by Ripken Vineyards and Winery and KG Vineyard Management on Friday morning.
This is the fifth year the two familyowned businesses have teamed up to donate pumpkins to the school, as both families have children enrolled there, according to Emily Ripken, community liaison for Larson Elementary’s Parent-Teacher Organization.
“Some people planted the pumpkins, some harvested them and some brought them over here. We’ve donated over 1,000 pumpkins today. This is probably the largest group of kids so far, because the school keeps growing,” Ripken said.
Richard Ripken, owner of Ripken Vineyards and Emily’s father-in-law, grew the pumpkins at his family’s vineyards while Benjamin Kolber, co-owner of KG Vineyard Management and Emily’s brother, helped to bring them to the school in a flatbed truck.
Madelyn Kolber, Benjamin’s wife, taught the eager children about the different varieties of pumpkins, how they are grown and other aspects of farming.
Dori Dennis, a second-grade teacher, was equally excited for both the opportunity to see smiles on her students’ faces and to connect their morning of fun with their classroom lessons.
“It’s exciting for the students, I think they’re looking forward to taking them home. I’ve heard that some of them are going to bake pies, and others are going to decorate them and put them on their porches. We have a scale in our room, so we’ll be able to weigh them. I’ll probably ask them to estimate the size of each pumpkin and guess who has the biggest, too,” Dennis said.
Vice Principal Lori Ruegsegger was also elated, acknowledging the two families’ generosity for donating not only the
pumpkins, but their time to educate the children.
“It sure is amazing, they did such a great job. The kids are so excited, they look forward to it every year,” Ruegsegger said.
Benjamin himself was happy to help the school as always, explaining that his family helps sponsor the annual Jog-A-Thon, the PTO’s Fall Fundraiser and other events throughout the year.
“I’m always excited to contribute to the kids at this school. All three of my kids go here, both of my nephews go here, we’re very excited to teach them about the pumpkin harvest, farming in general, as well as celebrating Halloween and serving the community. It’s nice to help build the community like this and teach kids about hard work and working together,” Benjamin said.
By bringing enough pumpkins for all
the students, the Ripken and Kolber families were also able to save the school a large sum of money. It would cost between $600 and $800 to take just one class to Ripken Vineyard’s pumpkin patch, according to Sonia Trujillo, Larson’s librarian. With 34 classes in all, transporting all 800 students to and from the pumpkin patch would cost between $20,400 and $27,200 each year. But bringing the pumpkins to the children requires significantly less time, and allows the school to spend that money on other field trips and activities, according to Richard.
“It wasn’t hard to get me to do it, I like to do it. I think it’s good for the kids, bringing a little country to the school. I get wonderful thank-you notes that are a joy to read, and all of my grandkids go here. Part of it is about giving back, having grown up in Lodi,” Richard said.