Paige Bush: Making a Difference from the Ground Up

“There are people in this world who offer suggestions,” says Colleen Cecil, executive director of Butte County Farm Bureau (BCFB), where Paige Bush sits as a board member. “And there are people who offer help. Paige always offers help, and she’s such a kind, generous soul that you can’t help but want her to be involved with everything.”

Born and raised in a walnut and almond farming family in Chico, CA, Paige deeply values agriculture in the North State. She studied agricultural business with a concentration in marketing at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo and quickly found a job as the marketing manager at an international produce company. She loved the position, but she could not help but recall sitting around the dining room table as a child and hearing her mother and grandmother share stories from their jobs as schoolteachers. “I always saw the difference they made for kids, and I guess that was always in the back of my mind,” Paige says. After three years as a marketing manager, Paige moved back to her hometown to earn a teaching credential at California State University, Chico.

This year, as she enters her sixth year of teaching second-graders at McManus Elementary School, Paige says she loves teaching because teachers can be “the stability in these kids’ lives.” She loves getting swarmed with hugs from 22 seven-year-olds. “She brings such positive energy,” says McManus principal Chris Weaver. “She’s proactive inside and outside of the classroom. She is one of the leaders of the positive culture of our school.”

“Proactive” describes Paige well. Over the past few years, Paige noticed most of her students have very little connection to the actual process of growing food. Although the agricultural bounty of the North State surrounds Chico, McManus’s location in the middle of town means few of the kids have access to land or property to grow anything. Last year, when Paige surveyed her students and learned how few had truly witnessed the life cycle of a plant or grown a consumable plant, Paige resolved to share her passion for agriculture with her students.

Paige began the new agriculture curriculum for her second-graders in the fall of 2018. She purchased some supplies herself and found donations for others, then trooped her classroom out to the school garden. Over the semester, the kids prepared the soil; planted spinach, chard, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and romaine lettuce; and watered and weeded the garden. Paige used the kids’ enthusiasm in the garden to reinforce other skills and lessons. Measuring plant distance involves math problems, keeping growth records requires reading and writing, and caring for the plants teaches patience and responsibility.

Kristine Keene, Paige’s former principal, points to the garden project to illustrate Paige’s ability to plan well and gather community support to benefit kids. In time for the fall harvest, Kristine says, “Paige went and got donations of colorful gloves, shiny new rakes and shovels, and other garden supplies. Kids love that. They love working in that garden; they are relaxed, eager, and excited.” Their produce stand also raised money to help the class take a “kindness field trip” to a local retirement home, agricultural field trips to Book Family Farms and the Wednesday morning farmers market, and even back to Paige’s roots at Parsley Farms, her family’s 400-acre walnut orchard.

Paige and her husband Dustin met at a junior livestock event ten years ago. Dustin grew up on a cattle ranch and has stepped into the walnut world since he and Paige moved to 16 acres of walnut orchards. “Since we both grew up on farms, it’s fun to raise our sons, Parker (age five), and Kellen (age two), on a farm,” says Paige. “Parker says he’s going to be a cowboy farmer. It’s so fun to pass on that passion.”

Paige not only shares her agriculture passion with her sons and students but also shares her passion for caring service with everyone around her. “She’s the first person to raise her hand to contribute,” says Chris, calling Paige “instrumental” in the school’s response to the Camp Fire and organization of McManus’s annual variety show, an increasingly popular event thanks to the positive, supportive atmosphere Paige creates. The variety show puts on stage what others see in the conference room, the classroom and the garden, that Paige’s love and enthusiasm make those around her grow and bloom.

The mission of our Be the Change column is to feature community members from the North State who are actively making a difference in community life. If you would like to nominate someone who is making a difference, please write to pn@northstateparent.com.