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amazing program, with these amazing kids right here.” For spring 2022, Kate teamed up with fellow Willows junior Jose Fletes to raise Julio. Fletes, one of four special-educa- tion students in the program, impressed Amaro with his work ethic. “He knows what he’s doing,” she said. “He’s getting in there, he’s cleaning those pens for me. He never complains about helping me at all. He’s always willing to work. I love Jose for that.” The program’s reputation is such that when auction day rolls around, the locals open their wallets. “We actually get quite a big crowd for all these special-needs kids,” Kate Amaro said. “People see all these kids’ faces and go, ‘We want to help them out.’ So on (the auction day), we really get the commu- nity involved, and I think that’s really fun and important.” As for Fletes, he said he likes the work so much, he made plans at last year’s auction to return. “Probably next year,” Fletes said, “I’m going to get another goat.” (Kevin Hecteman, a former assistant editor of Ag Alert, is the marketing and communications manager for the California State Railroad Museum Foundation. This article was originally published in the September/October 2022 issue of California Bountiful magazine.)
kids—how to teach them to be more in- dependent and how to teach them how to have these leadership skills,” she said. Fellow Willows graduate Etta Maben jumped in during her junior year “so I could go out and help the kids almost every day,” she said. “Seeing them happy to work with an animal, you don’t get to see a lot.” Maben said she wants to become a speech pathologist working with chil- dren, and she credits the program with helping fine-tune her communication and collaboration skills. “It was very important for all of us to respect each other at the end of the day,” she said, “but to be able to have and show the kids the respect and the responsibil- ity that goes along with taking care of the animal really helped.” Willows junior Adam Dyck said he had a blast last spring taking care of Bob, the goat he helped raise with his mentor, Brannon Bippus. “My favorite thing is washing them,” Dyck said, adding that he’s part of a “very fun program.” Those who help the special-education students get paid in grins, and they love it. “My favorite thing about the program is that, just to see the smile, like he just said, he enjoys this program a lot,” Bippus said.
The Willows High goat team, from left: Karli Lanzi, Marissa Hunter, Franny Ruiz, Brannon Bippus, Adam Dyck, Kate Amaro, Jose Fletes, Zachary Gonzalez and agriculture teacher Staci Alves.
“There’s more happiness in giving than receiving, so if I can see all four of the kids just have a good time, then I’m good.” That goes for the grown-ups, too. “I love seeing their faces and their emotions, and how happy they are,” Diane Amaro said. Then there’s the connections, Amaro added—Mighty Honker alums tend to stay in touch well after graduating. “They are lifelong bonds,” she said. “The community is so supportive of us, and if it wasn’t for our community, we
would not have this program. We thank our community immensely for every- thing they do for us.” When she started high school, Kate Amaro made a beeline for the goat program that her older sister Gina had helped launch. “I saw so many great things come out of this program—the kids’ smile on their faces, just so many great things— that I thought, man, that is the program that I want to be a part of,” the younger Amaro said. “If it wasn’t for my sibling, I wouldn’t be here today, part of this
October 5, 2022 Ag Alert 13
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