Kids’ Hard Work Finally May Bear Fruit Panel Introduces Bill Honoring Huckleberry

Not only do huckleberries taste good, but they’re also the same color as Idaho’s state flag.

That’s one reason the fourth- and fifth-graders of Southside Elementary School in Cocolalla are pushing to make the huckleberry Idaho’s state fruit.

The excited youngsters all started talking at once around a speakerphone when informed Monday morning that a legislative committee has agreed to introduce their proposal.

“The class voted on what would make a good state fruit, and the huckleberry won out,” teacher Rick Price said. “I’ve always thought it would be a good idea, but that’s because I’m a huckleberry fiend.”

In fourth-grade social studies, students learn about the state of Idaho. When Price’s combined fourth- and fifth-grade class was learning about state symbols this year, the students noticed that Idaho doesn’t have a state fruit.

They began gathering information about the berry, which grows across the state from Bear Lake to Boundary County.

“It’s really a part of the heritage. These kids spend their summers picking huckleberries,” Price said. “I taught in Teton County a few years ago and it was the same thing there, people just love huckleberries.”

Rep. Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum, pitched the bill to the House State Affairs Committee Monday.

“I thought it was well received,” Meyer said. “Everyone had a chuckle.”

The students were happy to hear that their proposal was making headway, and gathered around their teacher when the news came in.

“It’s really exciting,” Price said amid the classroom hubbub. “We hadn’t heard anything yet, we weren’t sure the bill would be considered this year.”

Sen. Clyde Boatright, R-Rathdrum, and Rep. Jerry Stoicheff, D-Sandpoint, are co-sponsoring the bill with Meyer.

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful, people use huckleberries for everything,” Stoicheff said. “Families have a really good time going out and picking them, and people have their own secret spots that they don’t tell anyone about, its funny.”

Stoicheff explained that her late husband, Jim Stoicheff, had been the principal of Southside Elementary School for many years.“He thought a lot of that school,” Stoicheff said. “I think the kids who go there get a look at government that most elementary school kids don’t get because my husband was involved in politics during the time he was principal there.”

Price’s students are ready to kick into high gear with their lobbying. They are networking with other fourth-grade classes across the state to begin a letter-writing campaign.

“Washington is the only state around us that has a state fruit, the apple of course,” Price said.

Two Idaho symbols proposed by students have gotten through the Legislature. In 1975, the Appaloosa became the state horse thanks to the work of a sixth-grade class from Eagle, Idaho. Then in 1992, students from Cole Elementary in Boise introduced the Monarch Butterfly as the state’s official insect.

But lawmakers weren’t so kind to the children who proposed a few years ago that the rattlesnake become Idaho’s state reptile. Farmer-legislators who called the snake a pest quickly nixed the idea.