(BRADENTON FL - December 13, 2006) In the best spirit of the holidays, students at Southeast High literally shared the fruits of their educational labor with people in need in the community.

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, after school was out for the day, students from Southeast's Agricultural classes and members of the school's FFA club harvested 200 oranges from a small grove located directly across the street from the school's campus. The grove, located on five acres owned by the school district, is managed and cultivated by students as part of their agriculture education experience.

After harvesting the oranges, the students cleaned the fruit and transported it to the local Salvation Army, where they sliced the oranges and served them to the organization's homeless patrons.

“It's nice to do it this time of year because Christmas time is all about giving,” said Southeast junior Kyle Vetter. “Also as part of our national FFA chapter application you have to try and do something good for the community and this was our idea.”

Southeast Agriscience Instructor Mike Buckley said the school has about 90 students who take a variety of agricultural courses including Agritechnology, Ag-mechanics, Agricultural Economics and Animal Science. The school also has about 30 members in its FFA chapter, Buckley said.

Southeast Students Kyle Vetter, Mark Nanney and Domonique Portee show off a crate of student grown oranges

Southeast students Mark Nanney, Kyle Vetter and Domonique Portee pick oranges to present to the local Salvation Army

In addition to the small citrus grove, the five acres of land near Southeast also contains pasture land and plots for two cows and two pigs which are watched over and tended by the students. Southeast shares access to the five-acre agricultural area with students from nearby Braden River High.

Domonique Portee, a junior at Southeast, said he developed an interest in agriculture because his mother grew up on a farm in South Carolina.

“I wanted to learn how plants grow and how to raise and take care of animals,” Portee said. “It's great that we have our own grove because we can get real hands-on experience.”

Freshman Mark Nanney also said his family has a background in agriculture and his primary interest is learning more about the mechanical aspects of agriculture. Nanney, who hopes to ultimately pursue a career in mechanical engineering, said it felt good to help out the Salvation Army.

“It's just a great opportunity to give back to the community,” Nanney said. “In FFA we have extra-curricular competitions, but we also do things like this to contribute to the community and to help people out.”