Milton Hershey School Project Market Hosts Fall Frolic Event During Family Weekend

Take a fall drive down Ivanhoe Lane in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and you can’t miss the Milton Hershey School Horticultural Center. Even though the harvest season is over, the building is surrounded by pumpkins, plants, gourds, and a large sign welcoming you to MHS Project Market.

On Saturday, Oct. 26, MHS Project Market was full of activity. Over 1,000 people visited for a family-friendly event during the school’s Fall Family Weekend. Appropriately named Fall Frolic, the event featured games, face and pumpkin painting, and education stations to learn about the other centers in the MHS Agricultural and Environmental Education (AEE) program.

It’s not unusual for MHS Project Market to host Saturday events during Family Weekends, which welcome parents and sponsors to campus to visit their students and engage with staff. But this year’s fall event took the school year theme—Raise the Bar—to new heights thanks to a collaboration with Home Life and the MHS Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) program.

After Project Market announced its Saturday event, the MHS VPA team saw an opportunity to amplify it with the help of student performance groups String Theory and Modern Band. Both groups performed during the event, and 45 Middle and Senior Division students in the stage crew created fun game boards like cornhole, plinko, ring toss, prize wheels, and more.

“We gave our students ownership of this project,” said MHS Instructional Theater Technician Brandi McNally, who oversees the stage crew. The team of students also created sets for the Senior Division fall play, “The Day the Internet Died,” another Fall Family Weekend feature.

In addition to VPA, Fall Frolic provided an opportunity to connect with Home Life’s theme homes. These homes across campus group students with similar talents, skills, classes, and schedules so their schoolwork can be reinforced. The first responder theme homes safely operated a s’mores fire pit and offered Hershey Fire Department truck tours. Also, the agriculture theme homes volunteered during the event and throughout the school year to plant, harvest, and maintain the gardens.

MHS Project Market is overseen by Erin Spangler, the Horticultural Center’s instructional advisor, and Jamie Carl, program assistant, who challenged their 10 student interns to expand the market’s offerings this school year.

“We set greater expectations for our students to ensure they receive an authentic work experience,” said Spangler.

Through Project Market, MHS student interns operate all aspects of the business, such as marketing, customer service, inventory management, and profit margin analysis. This career-focused education opportunity helps students develop teamwork skills and a solid work ethic. It also reinforces the character and leadership principles taught in the classroom and student homes through The Compass Project.

All produce sold is harvested by MHS students in fields on campus or the school’s hydroponic gardens. In addition, other clubs and Career and Technical Education program classes create new products, such as floral arrangements, metal garden markers, candles, soaps, laser-engraved keychains, and artwork. Over 40 students contribute to the products sold—including Spartan Ice Cream—whose student interns developed a Raise the Bar-themed flavor to celebrate the school’s annual Opening of School Assembly.

“There’s something for every student,” Carl said. “We have many students who are not in the Agriculture & Natural Resources career pathway, but all of them can apply what they learn here. The best part is when they get to see everything come together.”

MHS Project Market is seeing huge returns on its efforts to Raise the Bar and engage more students. So far this year, sales have increased 38% compared to 2023. The money earned funds the market’s products and offerings.

The MHS community and public are welcome to shop at the market on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. during the 2024-25 school year. The students and staff are gearing up for their next special events on Saturday, Dec. 7, and Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. Follow MHS Project Market on Facebook or Instagram for all the latest products and event details.

Building Lifelong Skills Through Project Market