Students raise money to buy new bison for park

RAYTOWN, Mo. -- Students hold fund raisers for all sorts of things: new band uniforms, class trips, proms. Members of the Family and Consumer Science Club at Raytown Middle School used proceeds from their sales and raffle to buy a bison. The animal, named "Dakota" by students at the school, was purchased as a replacement for one of the four animals shot and killed last summer at the Native Hoofed Animal Enclosure in Fleming Park, in the adjacent Kansas City suburb of Blue Springs.

Club president Kaylee McLaughlin, a frequent visitor to the bison area, suggested the fund-raiser after hearing of the other bison's deaths.

"Everyone got excited," said Kaylee, who led the campaign with club vice president Andrea Swan.

Club members held a holiday gift-basket raffle, sold roses for Valentine's Day and sold trail mix and chocolate-chip cookies they called "Buffalo Chips."

They bought Dakota for $600 from the Robert Smith farm in Longford, Kan., and donated the female yearling to Jackson County, which owns the park.

Dakota arrived at the park Friday, and the club celebrated with a visit to the area to see her.

The county has rebuilt the herd to 13 females and one bull, the number of animals it had before the shootings. The case remains unsolved.

Bison have roamed 100 acres at the park since 1971, natural resources foreman Jerry Long said.

On Friday, Long gave the students a quick lesson about the animals and took them on a hayride through the herd so they could get a close look at Dakota. Several of the larger animals wandered over to let the students feed them carrots and apples, but the new arrival -- still finding her place in the herd's social order, Long said -- kept her distance.