Lake LaVerne is home of the trumpeter swans Lancelot and Elaine. Now through the efforts of elementary school students and Iowa State, there will be two more trumpeter swans north of Ames.

Due to the effort of several children, a pair of endangered trumpeter swans will be placed on a farm site, said Linda Scheuermann, fourth grade teacher at Roland-Story Elementary School in Ames.

The event with the feathered, white creatures is taking place at 10:30 a.m. at the Farm by the Pond, about a mile north of the gravel pit north of Ames off Highway 69.

Scheuermann said members of the Department of Natural Resources will talk about the importance of the swans and the wetlands in Iowa.

The swans will be released into the water while students from the fourth through eighth grades watch, Scheuermann said.

“All of them had a lot of time invested in it,” she said.

Bringing the swans to the location north of Ames has been a five year project stemming from the effort put out by Scheuermann and her students getting involved with the Endangered Species Project, said Kristin Moorman, press contact for the story.

The students became interested in trumpeter swans specifically and raised $4,877 to bring the swans and establish a site, Moorman said.

Moorman said although there have been other swan projects, especially in Ames, this one is different because of the involvement of the children and because the swans will be located on privately owned property.

Some ISU students have also helped the school children foster a pair of swans.

“We will be there Saturday to help them celebrate the release of their swans,” Gaylan Crim, ISU Trumpeter Swan Restoration Committee Treasurer, said.

Crim said the ISU club is “part of the same state wide process,” to give endangered swans a home.