Canton Students Continue Push For Tart Cherries as State Fruit

For more than five years, students in Wendy Gravlin's class at Gallimore Elementary have written letters to state legislators, trying to convince them that Michigan needs a state fruit and it should be the tart cherry.

"It kind of all got started because we learn about government, civics and core democratic values," Gravlin said. "We're trying to teach the kids that they have a voice - even if they're not voting, they can still make a difference."

Rep. Dian Slavens (D-Canton) first introduced the bill to make the tart cherry the state fruit in 2010, but it went nowhere Not giving up, Gravlin's students continued their annual push with letters and Slavens re-introduced the bill on Jan. 9. It is currently in the House Operations Committee. 

In addition, students are getting additional support from some unexpected places this year who made special trips to visit their classroom on Tuesday. 

After reading about the effort in the Lansing State Journal, Grand Traverse Pie Company Owners Mike and Denise Busley thought it would be fun to make the trip from Traverse City to talk about the tart cherry and have students bake their very own Grand Traverse tart cherry pie. 

Nanci Jenkins, Cherry Republic assistant store manager in Ann Arbor, also spoke and passed out containers of dried tart cherries to students. One of Gravlin's students visited the store this past weekend and told staff members about his classroom's effort to turn the tart cherry into the state fruit. In addition to making the trip to Canton, Cherry Republic also took a picture of Gravlin's student and posted the information on their store Facebook Page.

"They think it's pretty cool," Gravlin said of her students. "They've written to the Operations Committe, Gov. Rick Snyder, Sen. Debbie Stabenow. They did all the research on all our representatives and who would make the biggest difference to write to. They're pretty excited about it. They think think this is going to be the year it gets taken care of. It's a short bill, I'm like 'come on, this one's easy!' Who doesn't want the tart cherry?"

Emily Popa, a 9-year-old fourth-grader in Gravlin's class, said the whole process has been "really cool."

Emily admitted that she wasn't really into the project at first, but then after starting to research it, she really liked it.

"There's a state everything else - state soil, bird, tree, but no fruit," she said. "And fruit is really healthy for you so it doesn't make sense."