Helping with cookies is a real treat for children

The career center will feature a different program each day.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- Emma Jarvis and Julia Bock of Salem aren't just your average 5- and 6-year-olds who were out with their grandmother at the Canfield Fair.
They're budding culinary artists, thank you very much.
They showed off their artistic inclinations Wednesday under the watchful tutelage of Ellen Conrad, instructor in the culinary arts program at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center, and Peggy Stephens, a counselor who was helping out.
A blank sugar cookie beckoned each girl as Stephens showed them how to use the tubes full of blue and yellow icing to create their masterpieces.
"You hold it like a pencil," Conrad said to Emma as she helped the child's small hands work the tube. "And just press. Squeeeeeze. Very good."
But what was the best thing about creating such great works of art? Emma and Julia both agreed: Eating them.
Hands on. That's the idea behind the career center's demonstrations at the fair this week. As their grandmother, Neva Greenamyer of Salem, and their older cousin, Alyssa Martig, 13, also of Salem, looked on, the young cousins got a little taste of cookie decorating.
Other programs
Letting kids interact with the demonstrations helps expose the school's culinary program to the public, said Robert Stephens, its trade and industry supervisor. The school will feature a different program each day.
On Thursday, the school will present science experiments, though Stephens wasn't sure what this year's demonstrations will be. In past years, he said, kids learned about static electricity.
On Friday, instructors from the Horticulture department will help kids make carnation corsages that they can wear to the fair or take home to Mom, said Dr. Roan Craig, superintendent of the school. Saturday, the Interactive Multimedia program will help kids put their pictures on a button. Sunday will feature a riveting demonstration by the Aviation Maintenance Technology program, which Craig said qualifies students for FAA certification to take an aviation maintenance job.
And on Monday, the school will talk about its adult education program "with some giveaways like free classes," Craig said.
The daily demonstrations are from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Educational Building.