We wanted to take a moment to shine a spotlight on our wonderful seasonal staff person, Raelynn Woodin. Ms. Woodin has been a fantastic asset to our team from April through October, primarily supporting pig farming as a swine technician, but also supporting our marketing efforts by helping us pilot a Skagit county and a Lynden market booth, and helping out as well a few times to support our Bellingham Farmers Market booth. Here is a photo of Raelynn hosting our Skagit Farmers Market booth this past summer.
Throughout the 2024 growing season, Raelynn worked alongside our pork production manager, co-founder Matthew McDermott, raising hogs on pasture to Animal Welfare Approved standards. It did not take long for Raelynn to be up and running with our animal management systems. She came to work with a great depth of pig farming knowledge as barn manager for the Mount Baker High School FFA pig barn, and years of experience breeding, raising, marketing and selling hogs through that program.
Raelynn is in her senior year at Mount Baker High School and keeps busy with her leadership roles in the Future Farmers of America program at Mount Baker, active hog management at her home and at the school pig barn, and with her non-farm employment at the Deming Speedway. She’s also actively pursuing career growth and is preparing for her college application process.
We reached out to Corinna Davis, Agriculture Instructor & FFA Advisor at Mt. Baker High School in the spring of 2024 to let her know we had openings on the farm. Corina immediately responded to invite us into her classroom: “When would work best for you to come into my classes to present this job opportunity? I have talked with several students who I think would be a good fit and they're eager to meet with you.” It was that meeting that Corinna set up that introduced is to all three of our 2024 seasonal staff: Dylan, Raelynn, and Ayla.
I went in for the meeting, said a few words to the larger group, and then Raelynn asked if she could give me a tour of the school pig barn, which she manages. And the rest is history.
When we asked Raelynn to reflect back on her time working at Alluvial Farms, she shared that his role helped advance her career goals because “I am going into animal sciences and I learned a different way to handle things. I loved getting to know all the pigs and being able to go out and talk to our customers about what goes on at the farm."
Raelynn shared that "Alluvial Farms helped me by always making sure that we had what we needed and that we still got to live our high-school lives while being able to make money and gain a lot from them. They were great bosses.”
Thank you, Raelynn, for the energy, enthusiasm, and hard work you've brought to our team this season. We’re looking forward to seeing you back at the market for some moonlighting events this winter, and maybe even again next summer.
Warmly,
Katie and the Alluvial Farms Team