Slice: Bickleton school wins field trip to pumpkin patch

No child left behind.

Not in Bickleton, at least.

Students at the tiny rural Klickitat County school produced the winning entries in a contest to design entrance signs for Schell's Produce pumpkin patch and corn maze, one in Toppenish and one in Union Gap.

The theme for this year is Awesome '80s, and Schell's offered 50 free tickets for the class or group of students who came up with the winning sign.

That meant 100 free tickets for Bickleton since their students were double winners, but it wasn't quite enough.

"The superintendent called my dad," Richard Schell Jr. said Wednesday, "and said 'we have 102 kids in our school, so can we bring them all?'"

Of course the Schells -- a longtime farming family in the Lower Valley -- provided the extra tickets so everyone from kindergarten through high school can go. Bickleton superintendent Rick Palmer said an all-school field trip to the pumpkin patch is in the works.

The signs, painted on 4-by-8 foot plywood sheets, are on display at the Schell's locations in Union Gap and Toppenish. Most of the work was done by seventh- through 12th-grade students in a fine arts class.

-- Tim Kelly