I love teachers. They are a group of men and women whose career choice is more like a calling to them than a job. From my large farm family in Southeastern Idaho, only one corporate guy, me, emerged. The rest found their callings in education, farming, or small business. 

So I was thrilled when I received an invitation from Harriet to represent the Nutrients for Life Foundation at Teacher’s Night at the amazing Durham Museum in downtown Omaha.

It just so happened that the Durham had just opened their headline exhibit, “Dig It! The Secrets of Soil,” direct from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.  For anyone who happened to miss this interactive and fun exhibit about soils in Washington, D.C., I suggest you book a flight to Omaha.  The venue at the Durham is just as roomy, parking is a heckuva lot cheaper, (aka, free) and who knows, maybe Warren Buffet will drop by while you are there.

Teachers poured into the Durham that Friday night from Nebraska and Iowa to be treated like royalty by the Museum with free admission, free drinks, and platters full of free food. More than 50 exhibitors like me were lined up throughout the museum to offer our wares, and try to connect with this most important demographic slice of our society.

The teachers were given large plastic bags, and they dutifully walked from exhibitor to exhibitor, sometimes in groups, and sometimes alone. As you would expect teachers to do, they were interested in learning from exhibitors, and of course, filling their large plastic bags with anything they could take back to their schools. They seemed fascinated with the materials that we were offering from Nutrients for Life. In fact, 50 teachers signed up to begin using the Nutrients for Life curriculum, Nourishing the Planet in the 21^st Century.

Seems to me the Durham has landed a gift for our industry right in the middle of America’s breadbasket.  I know these motivated teachers look forward to letting their students dig in the dirt at the “Dig It! The Secrets of Soil” exhibit at the Durham Museum in Omaha between now and December 26, 2010.

Rick Phillips,

Western US Representative

Nutrients for Life Foundation