Winner of NAFDMA's Celebrate Excellence School Tours award.
How many children a year visit Mesilla Valley Maze? About 22,000. What does a school tour encompass? Garden Tour; 2 stationary lessons lead by College students; Outdoor Classroom with licensed teachers; Hayride to patch w/pumpkin picking; Maze w/ Q & A sheets; Playground (slides, trikes, mystic walk, corn box etc.) mini mazes; Reserved Picnic tent w/tables for each group; (we can seat about 1150 at a time); teacher packet; current years curriculum; and the list goes on and on.
What component of your school tours are you most proud of? The grade level specific curriculum, that changes each year and meets standards for 2 different states.
Your hayride wagon look amazing. Who designed/built them?Steve designed and built these out of old cotton trailers. We got out of the cotton business many moons ago, and like any other farmer, couldn't let anything go to waste. The goal was a trailer that was safe above everything else. Steel floors with gritted floor paint, shade from the desert sun and an entry and exit system that couldn't be activated from inside the trailer.
What is your biggest challenge? As far as the school tours, keeping the education program fresh for the teachers. We have about a 80% return each year, some teachers have been bringing their classes since the beginning. Our track record, as far as education, is well established so I'm in hopes that we won't see much of a downturn with the economy.On another note,it's tough keeping up with the 2500 acre vegetable farm that Steve has which is the basis for our operation, I run the Maze as a completely seperate business entity. Between the activities at the maze and fall harvest on the farm, scheduling real family time during my season can be a bit tricky!
How long have you been using on-line registration? We have been using a combination of online & phone reservations for about 5 years. Online has been a boon as far as time managment goes. In most cases, a teacher will have her confirmation waiting when she gets back to the classroom the next day, but for days that are tightly scheduled or near the end of the season, I sometimes just pick up the phone and call them back.
Any words of advice? Make your school tour as "self-guided" as possible. Don't ever schedule the boss, whoever that is, to teach or give hayrides; youv'e got to be available to put out fires and glad hand with teachers...after all, they're the ones who made the decision to come and visit your farm.
I see you your website that you are New Mexico's Ag Educator of the year. Wow! Congratulations! Can you tell us a little more about this? New Mexico's Ag in the Classroom Program recognizes one teacher each year who exemplifies ag based education. I was chosen because of the quality of our program and the ability we have to impact such large numbers of students. (over 175,000 since 1999)
How long have you been a NAFDMA member? We joined NAFDMA and attended our first conference in 2003. The New Mexico Department of Agriculutre hired Jane Eckert to come out and visit 6 different farms in our state. What she shared with us was so eye-opening; who would have thought that there was an organization dedicated to what we do? NAFDMA has been a blessing for us.
How has NAFDMA helped your business? We didn't know what to expect @ that first conference, but North Carolina was amazing! I literally saw the light go on over my husbands head...he finally understood the vision that I had. The bus tour, comraderie and conference truly changed the direction of my life.
http://www.mesillavalleymaze.com/
Thank you Anna & congratulations!
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