By Kim McDarison
The Friends of Goat Island, Jefferson, have announced that they soon will be sponsoring a contest through which three new additions to the island’s herd will be named.
According to information released by the group, the contest will offer elementary school students within the School District of Jefferson, attending East, West and Sullivan elementary schools, an opportunity to submit names for the three goats which are enjoying the off season on an area hobby farm, and will, in June, be moved to Goat Island where they will live for the warm-weather months.
Melinda Perez, board president of the Friends of Goat Island, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving and enhancing the city’s landmark space, said the idea to name the young ruminants through use of a contest was developed after obtained three Nubian kids last May.
Part of the group’s mission is to promote activities that connect residents with the Goat Island landmark. The island is a small landmass situated in the Rock River, near its confluence with the Craw Fish River, near the shore of the city’s downtown Riverfront Park.
Each summer, a small herd of goats is kept on the island to help with weed abatement.
Engaging the community’s elementary school students by sharing the experience of obtaining the young goats seemed a good way to foster a connection, Perez said.
The contest will begin next week, when students in each of the district’s elementary schools will be supplied with a photograph of the three neutered, male, kids, called wethers in the goat-keeping world, along with pages to color, featuring the likeness of “Charlie,” a goat who serves as the Friends organization’s mascot.
Guided by their teachers, students in each school will color pages and conduct a contest of their own. After each child colors a page, and writes a suggested name on the artwork, the items will be collected and, through a process decided within each building, a single name will emerge, Perez said.
There are three wethers and three elementary schools, so each school will get to name one goat, she said.
After each school makes its name selection, the three names will come before the Friends organization’s five-member board, and board members will match a name with each of the kids.
Perez said board members work daily with the goats in their care, and are familiar with their personalities and behaviors. They hope to match a name that reflects the goat’s personality, while celebrating the history of Goat Island, she said.
On Friday, Jan. 26, the three kids will tour the three elementary schools, where the children will be able to see and meet the young stock and learn which animal received which name.
As a participation award, Perez said each student within the three schools will receive a backpack embellished with the name of the goat selected by their school.
Additionally, she said, the children’s artwork, the colored pages bearing the names they suggested, will be placed on display in prominent locations throughout the city of Jefferson.
The Friends group is seeking monetary donations to help offset the cost of the backpacks, Perez said.
“This initiative not only brings the community together, but also fosters a sense of pride and ownership in our shared public spaces,” Perez was quoted as saying in a release recently sent to area media outlets.
About the goats
Perez said that the Friends organization owns four goats that will soon be living on the Island. They include the three new kids, and a nearly 2-year-old Nubian doe named “Sweetie.”
Melinda described Sweetie as a sort of “big sister” to the younger boys.
The herd of four will be taken to Goat Island, depending on the weather, she said, around the beginning of June, and likely they will stay to the beginning of October.
For the young goats, who will each turn a year old this May, it will be their first time living on the island.
Perez said that the full number of goats that likely will live on the island this year is nine. She noted that while the Friends group owns four, an area hobby farmer owns five more that graze the community landmass during the spring and summer months.
The three baby goats that the children will soon name began life on a farm near Cambridge, Perez said. They lived there until the fall, when they were moved to the Jefferson area farm to join Sweetie.
Two of the young goats are twins, she said. They were born on May 27 of last year. The third kid was born the next day. Sweetie will celebrate her second birthday on Feb. 2.
With these milestones comes an opportunity for the community, and its children, to embrace the animals who add a unique element to the area and groom a natural area within the city limits.
Perez said the Friends board suggested the contest to school district authorities because they wanted the children to “have fun,” and, she said, ”we want the kids to remember this experience and to feel connected to the community by it.”
Those interested in sponsoring the naming event or learning more about the Friends of Goat Island and its programming, are encouraged to contact Perez by email: friendsofgoatisland@gmail.com.
Three unnamed Nubian kids gather in a field on a Jefferson area farm. The animals will soon receive names, chosen for them by elementary school students within the School District of Jefferson. The kids are owned by the Friends of Goat Island nonprofit organization and are anticipated to be among animals released in June to live on Goat Island to help keep the public space groomed. Contributed photo.
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