Among the many educational and recreational opportunities that the Orange County Fair & Exposition Center offers to area residents and neighborhood children, one of the most successful is The Ranch, which is celebrating its first birthday.

Thirty youngsters from Davis Elementary School in Costa Mesa were the first graduates last year of the program, whose goal is to offer an educational experience that will be an alternative to traditional after-school activities.

But this year Evy Edelo, the program coordinator, and Jim Bailey, special Fair projects consultant, plan to have a total of 90 students, 30 in each of a four-week school quarter. Even further enrollment is possible in coming years, Bailey said.

It’s an agriculture-oriented program that has some universal goals such as personal responsibility and social agreeability. The students are instructed in horsemanship, gardening and livestock, which supplements and enriches their science instruction and helps them learn how to organize facts, Bailey said.

According to Edelo, the students love the program. In fact, some who were in it last year have returned to volunteer to help their former mentors.