PEORIA, Ill. — To Lexi Windish of Elmwood Elementary School, the word “dairy” is synonymous with “delicious food and yummy drinks.” That sentiment, along with her submitted photo depicting the third-grader hanging with a few of her BBFs (best bovine friends), earned the youngster from Brimfield, Ill., a firstplace finish in the Peoria County Farm Bureau’s (PCFB) Ag in the Classroom (AITC) photography contest, in February.

 

The contest, sponsored by Prairie Farms, was open to elementary school students in 218 participating AITC classrooms throughout Peoria County. Lexi’s photo was selected from some six dozen photos submitted by students from around 20 urban and ruralbased schools. For submitting the winning photo and brief essay, Lexi and her classmates will be treated to an upcoming field trip to Linden Hill Dairy Farm in Peoria sometime this spring. “Dairy looks like delicious food and yummy drinks! I love cheese, ice cream and milk,” the third-grader wrote, conveying both an appreciation for animal agriculture and an acute knowledge of where food products in her family’s refrigerator originate from. No wonder – Lexi and her family reside on a small, rural Brimfield farm surrounded by farmland, crop fields and livestock, and she is active in the Elmwood All-Stars 4-H program.

 

“Lexi is over the moon to have won this competition!” said Lexi’s mom, Michelle Windish. “She is very excited to visit the local dairy with her class.”

 

PCFB Manager Patrick Kirchhofer said the photo entries were numbered and displayed on tables prior to their March 9 county board of directors meeting.

 

Directors could not see the names of the students or which school the student attended. Each of the 17 directors selected their top three photos, with the photo receiving the most nominations selected as winner.

 

“There was a variety of pictures from some very creative students. Students from both District 150 schools in the city of Peoria and our rural students submitted photos,” Kirchhofer said.

 

The contest was conducted by Abbie Enlund, AITC coordinator for the PCFB. “Thanks to the generous contribution that Prairie Farms made to the program to make this contest possible,” she said.

 

Farmer-owned Prairie Farms, which has a distribution plant in Peoria, will pick up the tab for all of the field-trip related expenses associated with the field trip to Linden Hill Dairy Farm, Enlund added.

 

Lexi is said to be “absolutely thrilled” to have her winning photo published in Farm World, her mother reported.