By Samantha Briggs

Reporter

On April 20, Bakersfield College will be celebrating the school’s 100th year by holding the 8th annual Garden Fest. Garden Fest kicks off the first of the school’s centennial celebrations.

The event will feature the school’s agriculture and horticulture programs and guests will get an opportunity to learn about environmental issues, as well as participate in games and fun activities.

Environmental Horticulture Technician Sally Sterns has been running Garden Fest since it began.

“We will have 126 vendor booths in our 2 acre area,“ Sterns said.

“We will have everything from arts and crafters to artists, to people who do pottery. Landscapers and nurseries will be coming. A huge variety of different vendors just like what you would see at the fair grounds.”

There will also be plants for sale during the event.

“We really focus on agricultural things, especially gardening. We open our green houses and all of the plants will be for sale,” Sterns said.

“We sell the plants that the students have grown and nurseries come and sell their plants. So if you love plants this is a great place to buy them at an excellent price.”

The event will also feature interactive seminars.

“We will showcase horticulture industry professionals teaching free how-to seminars,” Sterns explained.

“We will set up chairs for the audience and they can ask questions about lawn care and plant care. We will also have one of the chefs from the culinary arts program do a barbequing demonstration.”

Because the Garden Fest is a part of BC’s centennial celebration, there will be a ceremonial tree planting.

“We’ve been planting trees on campus in conjunction with The Tree Foundation of Kern. We’ve planted 99 trees on campus since last November and the 100th tree will be planted during Garden Fest at 1 in the afternoon,” Sterns said.

“Starting at 9 in the morning we will have a ‘how to build a waterfall’ seminar. Buck Landscape Material will be here and they will build a waterfall from beginning to completion, and they will turn it on in the afternoon.”

The BC clubs will be participating in the festivities.

“The BC Clubs will do a kids carnival. There will be carnival games for kids so there’s something for the young ones to do,” Sterns said.

“The kids carnival is also having a competition between the clubs. The club that has the best decorated carnival booth will receive 250 dollars.”

The BC culinary arts students also partake in the Garden Fest fun.

“The culinary arts students will be cooking breakfast for sale, this year they’re having pancakes. In the afternoon they will be making lunch, the guests will be able to choose between a hot dog plate and a rib plate. Other vendors will be selling food as well.”

Garden Fest will showcase a lot of BC student’s talents.

“Some individual students who are artists will have booths and they will be selling their art. We have a caricature artist named Chris Borbon, who is a student; he will be doing caricatures at the event.

“Another student named Matt, makes and plays didgeridoos; he will be playing it at the event,” Sterns said.

“There is another student who is a duct tape crafter and she will be selling the purses and wallets she makes out of duct tape.

“We have other students that will be selling their plants that they have grown at home.”

Sterns wants to encourage everyone to come out and celebrate Bakersfield College.

“It’s a fun day and it goes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“It is free admission and there’s lots of stuff to see and do. We always encourage everyone to come and stay all day.”