Hill’s partnered with TES to bring the birdhouses to students in Natalie Frese’s second-grade class and Christina Breedlove’s fifth-grade class. The exercise commemorated Earth Day, which was Saturday. Hollie Davis, safety officer at Hill’s, said the company, which has a more than $250 million plant just south of Tonganoxie, does outreach programs in the community and Thursday’s Earth Day event was an example of that. The new pet-food plant encompasses a building of roughly 365,000 square feet. Davis said that as of now the plant is expected to open sometime later this summer.

Students painted their birdhouses in a variety of ways last week. Some painted clouds, others had trees, rainbows or the American flag. Others went with single colors on the roof or side, while some took the multi-color approach.