Maybe it was the lollipops. Or maybe it was the homemade, stuffed pumpkins they passed out to lawmakers. And the polite words they practiced couldn't have hurt.

Or maybe, just maybe, the pumpkin really is the best fruit to represent New Hampshire.

The lobbying efforts of the 3rd and 4th graders at Harrisville's Wells Memorial School to make the pumpkin the state fruit paid off in victories last week, when the bill passed unanimously through the subcommittee and committee levels. It was the first step in the bill's journey to becoming law.

House Bill 1111, sponsored by Rep. Peter Allen, a Democrat from Harrisville, will appear before the House next week, where it will face another vote.

If it passes that test, the bill heads to the Senate for another round of subcommittee, committee and floor votes before it would be passed on to Gov. John Lynch for his signature.

The students traveled to the state capital on Feb. 17 to promote the bill before its hearing in the agriculture issues subcommittee.

The bill is the students' own creation and the centerpiece of their New Hampshire civics studies, where mention of an official state fruit is notably absent.

Before the hearing, opened to the public for this special occasion, the students lobbied state representatives in the hallways, following the script they'd practiced in the previous weeks.

"Good morning, do you have a few minutes?" they'd ask, before introducing themselves, explaining the pumpkin bill and handing out the treats they'd prepared, said their teacher, , Kathleen Frick.

In the hearing, the students assiduously took notes in matching orange spiral notebooks, listening for words that caught their ear as Frick instructed.

------ End of article

By NIKA CARLSON

Sentinel Staff