I guess you could say that I am
from the south. Coming from the small town of Hope, Indiana I can honestly say
that we usually do not get that much snow. As I have traveled our beautiful
state over the past six months, I have begun to realize that not only do we
have a lot of corn, basketball, open roads, and beautiful scenery, but up
north, they have a lot of snow!
As we began our trek Sunday night
to Miss Kathleen Jacob's house, it was a chilly evening and the rain had turned
into sleet. Kathleen's parents greeted us with a warm welcome, open arms and
they definitely fed us well. There's nothing quite like home cooking. Monday
morning, things got real interesting. We discovered that Kathleen's younger
brother had a two-hour delay which eventually turned into a cancellation. It
was then that we realized that the roads would be a challenge to say the least.
As we left "Drifty Lane
Farms" we drove with caution and hoped that the roads would get better as
the day went along. Our mission for the day, was to go from business to
business picking up donations for the Ft. Wayne Farm Show. After a long day of pickups,
we all met at the coliseum and began creating baskets and organizing our booth.
We ate at Texas Roadhouse that evening and discussed our game plan for our
first official day of the Ft. Wayne Farm Show.
Tuesday came and we were ready to
go! Our game faces were on. We were split up into groups of two and each group
was assigned a specific section in the coliseum. We then went from booth to
booth asking if companies would like to make a donation to our annual FFA Live
Auction which happened at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday. Businesses were
extremely generous with their donations and they gave things such as gift
cards, gift baskets, toy tractors, tools, and bale spears to contribute to our
auction. Some even made monetary donations which we were very grateful for.
Wednesday's game plan was pretty
much the same as Tuesdays. We continued going from booth to booth asking if
businesses wanted to sponsor us and we even went back to a few booths who had
asked us to check back in at a later time. These two days were a blast! Dakota
and I were paired up to cover our section and we became friends with so many of
our supporters. All were extremely helpful and they understood the importance
of donating to our auction. Not only were their donations going to benefit
those who wanted to buy things at our live auction, but they were benefiting
FFA members from all across the state. The money made from the auction goes to
things such as leadership programs and scholarships.
Now I know you must be wondering,
"How much did you make over the two days that you were at the Ft. Wayne
Farm Show?" That is an excellent question!
I am pleased to announce that not
only did we set a record, but we made roughly over $23,500 dollars from our
2015 live auction!!!
After two long but extremely
successful days of the Ft. Wayne Farm Show, we all left the coliseum with
smiles on our faces and unforgettable memories from talking with the business
and sale representatives to getting lost in the parking lot Wednesday night
looking for Lindsey's car (Yes. This happened.).
It was great to see many of our
wonderful FFA members helping pass out papers and greet people at the door as
they arrived as well! I even ran into a few members when we were out and about
getting donations! You all did a great job representing Indiana FFA.
I would definitely say that the
past two days were quite a success! We could not have done it without our avid
supporters and sponsors! So thank you to those who contributed to our efforts!
As soon as we made it back to
Trafalgar last night, we walked over to the EMR to discover that Ag teachers
were everywhere.
If you are a student, you may have
noticed that your Ag teachers were not in school today. No they were not skipping, they were actually at the teacher in-service at the Indiana FFA
Leadership Center in Trafalgar. The in-service consists of teachers all across
Indiana coming to the center to further their education on recent changes or
new ideas in the agricultural education world and with FFA. I enjoyed having
lunch with my Ag teacher, Mrs. Aleesa Dickerson today and I'm sure my teammates
enjoyed lunch with their advisors as well! When your teachers come back to school
and share new and exciting things that they learned with your classes, make
sure you thank them for all that they do! They are not going to these sessions
to help themselves, they go to further their knowledge to help you! The
students! I want to challenge you to write your Ag teacher a note thanking them
for what they do or even give them call if you want! Sometimes it helps to know
how much you are valued and appreciated! Enjoy the sunshine today and don't
forget to thank your Ag teacher!
Serving with a grateful heart,
Brittany Young
Indiana FFA
State President
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