By Brenda Sexton

Staff Writer

Sumner High School FFA program is preparing 62 projects – hogs, lambs and steers, to take down the road to Puyallup in April for the Northwest Junior Livestock Show and Sale.

Local Sumner and Bonney Lake area youth have been raising their project animals for months. It gives kids the chance to learn how to care for a livestock project animal.

The students spend three days competing with their livestock at the fair. On the final day, the livestock are sold at a live auction.

The kids are looking for buyers for their livestock.

The event is set for April 15-18 at the Western Washington Fairgrounds.

Buyers can participate in several ways. The first is the outright purchase of an animal for the buyer’s own freezer.

All the livestock is involved in a quality assurance program and is processed by a USDA-approved facility.

A buyer also can support local kids through donations to the buyers committee. All proceeds go to support students who take their livestock to the show.

Chet Bates is heading up Sumner’s buyers committee and can be reached at 253-208-1753. Sumner High agriculture science teacher Rusty Finch is also a contact. He can be reached at Rusty_Finch@sumner.wednet.edu.

“Northwest-bred, locally-grown,” Finch said of the meat.