Inspire Day teaches students about Dr. Norman Borlaug

Rural CRESCO - Each spring and fall, the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation sponsors Inspire Day with help from Luther College (in spring) and Iowa State University in the fall.

This year’s 11th annual event was special as Dr. Borlaug’s daughter, Jeanie Laube, and her grandson, Luke Larson, spent time at the boyhood home telling stories about visiting her grandparents at the house, as well as stories of her dad.

About 300 students from CFS (Calmar-Festina-Spill-ville)-DeSales Catholic School, Riceville, Crestwood, Notre Dame, South Winn, St. Joseph (New Hampton), Turkey Valley and Trinity Catholic (Protivin) had 10 different sessions to attend.

Each session told a lesson about agriculture or Dr. Borlaug.

• Abby Kennon was the Borlaug-Thomson Intern over the summer. She was stationed at the one-room school house, which Borlaug attended for eight years.

• Iowa flood information was given. It was an easy hands-on lesson as the area had just received a deluge of between five and 10 inches of rain in the prior three days, so most students recognized what the leader was explaining.

They were told before civilization came to Iowa, it was prairie land. The root system allowed water to be soaked up. Now with concrete and crop fields, the topography has changed.

• Another session talked about the prairie and pollinators.

• At the new birthplace barn, each group participated in a food packaging event from the Outreach Program.  Approximately 7,650 beans and rice meals were prepared by the students. They will go to two children’s centers in Tanzania, Africa.

• Turkey Valley High School students taught a geo-caching course at the birthplace farm.

• One of the favorite sessions took place at the boyhood farm chicken coop. Ginny Mitchell of ISU Insect Zoo let students touch creepy crawlies and explained how they survive in the wild.

• Raj Raman of ISU gave a presentation on donuts to sparks.

• Plant breeding and genetics was the subject at the boyhood barn. The speaker asked students if they liked broccoli. About 25 percent raised their hands. She said liking or not liking broccoli came about because of a certain gene.

• The Iowa Corn Bio-Fuel Mobile Lab, which had some educational displays was set up for the youth as well. 

• By far, the most relevent to Dr. Borlaug was the presentation given by Laube and Larson.

Laube told students she and her brother, Bill, grew up in Mexico City. “We would come up here every other year for two weeks in the summer for vacation. I remember the house and the trees. I have fond memories of this place.”

Laube stated her father, was three things:

1. A scientist;

2. A humanitarian; and 

3. A teacher

“His goals were to study hard, work hard and help other people. He learned his ethical values living in this community. He also learned a lot from wrestling.”

As a child, Laube recalled her father had big notebooks. He kept his notes there and in his head.

Norman’s cousin, Allen Borlaug told of his first real memory of Dr. Borlaug. Although he was most famous for his work with wheat, he also worked with oats. 

“He brought two bags of oats to our farm and told us to plant them and see how they grew. They yielded 100 bushel per acre. That was unheard of!” They used the oats for seed for the next year, and neighbors saw how great it was and bought seed from the family.

Laube explained her father changed the world by bringing a new kind of wheat to other countries. “You each can change the world, too, if you try.”

All-in-all, it was a great day to learn about a great man.