Prairie Elementary Carnival is Friday evening

Julie Buntjer, The Daily Globe, Worthington, Minn.
·3 min read

Apr. 22—WORTHINGTON — Prairie Elementary invites students and their families to a school carnival from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, complete with carnival games, inflatables, food, prizes and the unveiling of the school's newest Discovery Room theme — a carnival, of course.

Prairie Elementary Principal Heidi Meyer said the free event is a celebration and a way to say thanks to families for supporting their child's education.

"A group of about 10 teachers got together and started thinking of ways to do something special for our kids and families to celebrate nearing the end of another great school year," Meyer said. "This crew has put in countless hours already, excited to give our kids this awesome night."

In addition to the numerous games and activity booths, students will be able to get a book at the "Book Walk" and win a soda at the ring toss. In the cafeteria, students can play Loteria, a traditional game from Mexico that is similar to Bingo.

Food trucks will be on-site for families to purchase something to eat.

Meyer said the carnival can't happen without the help of many volunteers, including community organizations and student groups from Worthington High School and Minnesota West Community and Technical College. Many Prairie Elementary staff will also be on hand to help with the event.

When Chuck Nystrom, owner of Ocheda Orchard and developer of the nationally recognized SugarBee apple, learned that the school carnival coincided with Chelan Fresh Marketing's trip to Worthington to promote the SugarBee apple at Fareway, he asked if the company would like to bring an extra pallet of apples to distribute at Friday night's event.

The answer was an enthusiastic yes.

For Nystrom, the apple will come full circle. Known at his orchard as the B-51, he developed the apple variety by planting seeds from the popular Honeycrisp apple in the early 1990s.

"Back then, the patent didn't protect all of the parts of the plant," Nystrom said. "Now they do."

By the late 1990s, Nystrom realized he had a really nice apple with the first crop coming from his newly developed variety. About a decade ago, Chelan Fresh Marketing purchased the exclusive marketing rights to the apple in North America, and now owns the worldwide marketing rights.

"I can sell them at the orchard or at farmers markets as the test apple, B-51," Nystrom shared.

Students and families at the Prairie Elementary Carnival will get a SugarBee apple, grown at Gebbers Farms and Chelan Fruit Co. orchards in Washington state. The company is donating about 20 cases of apples — roughly 2,000 — for the event.

Nystrom will join the SugarBee apple mascot and representatives from Chelan Fresh Marketing at the carnival. During the day on Friday and Saturday, the mascot will be at Fareway.

Chelan Fresh Marketing donated SugarBee apples in Mexico in each of the past two years during the week Nystrom and members of Indian Lake Baptist Church have completed missions in the country.

"I'm just so delighted to work with a company like Chelan Fresh — it's just such a joy," Nystrom said.