Cinnamon, a baby calf and Monroe resident, literally took the stage at Highland Park Elementary School this morning in one of four Seattle school stops this month as part of the Washington Grown Harvest of the Month, a nutrition program that each month showcases a Washington grown item in school cafeterias and classrooms.

Helen Walsh is working on a grant through CPPW, Communities Putting Prevention at Work. She is with the Seattle School District in the Health Education office.

"We are promoting Washington grown food," she said. "Many counties have dairies. For some of these kids this is the first time they've ever seen a cow. It's great for them to get an understanding of how our own state has very healthy things for their bodies. Our Seattle School District gets all their milk products from Auburn and Kent."

Judy Odermann is the Washington State Dairy Women Ambassador Advisor.

"We are here at the request of the Seattle School District," said Odermann. "We are here today to kick off nutrition month with dairy. We do school presentations on the benefits of having dairy in your diet. This is our 56th year. We are an organization of about 300 women. We take all three ambassadors around the state."

They are runners up Kelsey Schubach, from Centralia, Stephanie van Beek, and Ambassador Kristyn Mensonides. Schubach donned a crown and demonstrated milking apparatus to the Highland Park kids, and gave cow facts.

"A cow eats 90 pounds of hay a day," she told the young students.

She told the West Seattle Herald, "I attend Washington State University in Vancouver. I want to be a veterinarian. That's the plan."

Lynne Hillier is the next door neighbor of Vicky Furrer, who owns the calf. Hillier and Furrer brought Cinnamon on Hillier's trailer upon Walsh's request. They live just off Highway 2 in Monroe on dairy farms.

The baby calf becomes a yearling, then mature when they are two, and will start milking. You might say Cinnamon is a "new" Jersey. She gets a bottle of milk twice a day.

March will feature potatoes.