Bobby Ellis
bobby.ellis@education.ky.gov
As summer comes to a close, the harvest season rolls in bringing fall-themed festivals and pumpkin-spiced lattes.
As part of the harvest season, the Kentucky School for the Deaf (KSD) hosted its second annual Sweet Corn Festival Oct. 6 with games like bobbing for apples, hay bale rolling, corn shucking and a corn eating contest.
“This is our second Sweet Corn Festival, but this one is special because this is the first time in 42 years that there has been sweet corn grown here at KSD,” said Toyah Robey, principal of KSD. “It is so special to be a part of this campus and to have 23 acres dedicated to being a farm, not many schools get that chance.”
Robey said KSD has one of only two deaf FFA chapters in the country, with 23 acres of the school’s property dedicated to projects for the chapter.
“The students work so hard, and they worked so hard putting this event on,” she said. “Everything happening here today, the students planned.”
Members of the community were invited to the school for the festival, where they could pay to pick ears of sweet corn off the stalk.
“Getting it fresh!” said James “Knobby” Pitman, a resident of Danville who emerged from the cornfield carrying an armful of corn.
Two students in particular were honored for their hard work in planning the festival.
Mikeyla Crumble, a 9th-grader, and Jesse Rice, a 10th-grader, were named the queen and king of the sweet corn festival. Afterward, Rice was approached by his friend Micah Tucker, a 7th-grader, who asked Rice how he had become king.
“I work really hard planning this,” said Rice. “It was a lot of work and time.”
“That’s what I want to do,” said Tucker. “I want to be the Sweet Corn King.”
Mandy Byrne, the culinary arts teacher at the Kentucky School for the Deaf, fries sweet corn during the school’s Sweet Corn Festival.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
Abriana Norris, a senior at KSD, competes in the corn eating contest.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
KSD staff members compete in a corn shucking contest.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
A bucket of sweet corn sits next to the four acres of corn grown on KSD’s property.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
Kentucky School for the Deaf students and staff compete in a hay bale rolling race during the Sweet Corn Festival.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
LaFonda Stallworth, a teacher’s aide at KSD, picks corn during the Sweet Corn Festival.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
James “Knobby” Pitman carries a bucket of sweet corn out of the field after picking ears off the stalks. The Kentucky School for the Deaf invited community members to come to the school to pay for ears of corn to take home.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
Priscilla Godfrey, a 9th-grader at KSD, pulls an apple out of the tub while bobbing for apples.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
Kaelan Barrett, a 9th-grader at KSD, left, races Camerron McPherson, an 8th-grader, through a straw maze. All the events at the Sweet Corn Festival were planned by students at the school.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
Toyah Robey, the principal of the Kentucky School for the Deaf, left, poses with Mikeyla Crumble and Jesse Rice after they were named the Sweet Corn Festival queen and king.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
Georgia Judge, a 10th-grader at KSD, bobs for apples at the school’s Sweet Corn Festival.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
James David, a senior at KSD, competes in the corn eating contest at the Sweet Corn Festival.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, Oct. 6, 2017
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