Help Grow Your Soup

On a Sunny August day, in the heart of the Midwest, 45 FFA members gathered with Alumni and friends to begin a project... and truly had a "hay day".

Chelsea Riordan, a high school student and FFA member from Illinois is the sixth generation of her family and the fifth to be currently involved in FFA. She and her brother are FFA members and her family is all members of the National FFA Alumni. Well, as she works hard in her Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE), she uses many structures and pieces of equipment, and one of her family's barns was about to get a face lift.

Campbell Soup Company has partnered with the National FFA Organization to donate a quarter of million dollars to fund agricultural education programs. Along with assisting National FFA Alumni in providing an opportunity for alumni members to engage and mentor FFA members through these service projects, this project also allows the alumni to provide scholarships for the Washington Leadership Conference (WLC) to all chapters that participate in the barn preservation. Partners in Active Learning Support (PALS), a peer-to-peer mentoring program and 10x15, Agricultural Education's long range strategic goal for increasing growth and quality by attaining 10,000 ag programs/FFA chapters by 2015 are two other areas of focus for the Campbell/FFA partnership.

So... How does a barn preservation fit?

Campbell’s and the FFA Alumni want to help keep good things growing in agriculture – our national’s largest industry employing 17% of the workforce. Because barns are an iconic symbol of American agriculture, this effort is designed to raise awareness for the importance of supporting the people and places that help grow our food. Chelsea isn't only involved in agriculture currently; she plans to become an agricultural education major and teach ag to other students and future FFA members.

On Monday, August 11, volunteers from Campbell Soup Company Corporate Headquarters, the Riordan family, four FFA Chapters and their advisors, local and national FFA Alumni, TV crews and newspaper reporters and more joined together to begin the painting. Within hours, not only was the barn completely painted, so were many of us! And, after a second day on the job, Chelsea and her family took pride in their restored piece of history and currently active red barn.

Now, the barn stands out against the beautiful agricultural countryside and embodies a passion of both future and present agriculturalists.

You can learn more about this initiative. Beginning September 29, 2008, visit http://www.helpgrowyoursoup.com/ and click on the symbolic red barn. It will trigger a $1 donation to the FFA, and you will help preserve the future of this organization and the industry of agriculture.

July: What a Month!

The unfathomable experiences continue. In addition to seeing how much other FFA members are also thriving in our agricultural leadership organization, building influential partnerships is significantly rewarding.

It was the summer of 2005 when I first arrived in Washington, DC for an FFA conference. Going back to my premier FFA experience in our nation’s capital, now three years later, I joined with younger FFA members at the Washington Leadership Conference. I didn’t give a speech, facilitate the conference, deliver directions or have any “officer” responsibilities; I was asked to be a participant with the 120 high school students as we discovered what it means to be an authentic leader. After making some great friends and doing a community service project for an inner city school, my teammates and I joined for our following FFA conference in DC.

State Presidents’ Conference (SPC) involved two state FFA officers from 49 states and Puerto Rico as well as our team and families. We empowered those involved through discussing delegate issues, presenting our direction to congressmen, touring the city and even meeting with President Bush in the White House. His message was that we are free, and the principle of freedom doesn’t discriminate. If we believe freedom is a God-given gift, we should stand for our principle for every single person alive. I was standing within reach of the most powerful man in the world as he spoke with conviction and even told a few jokes. I will never, never forget it.

After the state officers and our families returned home following SPC, my teammates and I were on our way to our next adventures. I left for Indianapolis to visit friends setting up at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. After only a day in Indy, my flight left for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Newark, New Jersey to visit FFA partners. We met with UPI—a post-patent chemical company, New Holland, Campbell Soup Company and the Penn-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show. I was super impressed with Campbell’s World Headquarters building, iconic display of their soups and paraphernalia, and energetic team of staff, and I am looking forward to working even more closely with Campbell this fall.

I arrived back in our state capital just two days after leaving, and I toured Marion College. I will be getting back to the books this coming January and will definitely incorporate the real-world educational experiences the former two years have brought. The next day I jumped back into setting up the FFA Pavilion for fair, and then began National FFA Convention preparation.

In the midst of planning our 54,000-member gathering this October, Kari, my teammate, and I restored a century-old barn in Reddick, Illinois with about 40 FFA members and several volunteers. Campbell’s partnership includes restoring barns in an effort to connect consumers with their farm-grown ingredients. Now, we are back in Indianapolis for more preparation for our largest annual-event.

As the year begins to close out, the partnerships will continue: partnerships of connection, inspiration, heart and energy. I cannot wait to see what the final months bring.

Reconnecting

State Fair Set-Up and Partnership Visits

August 2, 2008

After returning from State Presidents’ Conference—still chanting, “Em-em-em-empower, em-em-em-empower…” all the way back, I arrived at the Indiana State Fairgrounds to help with our 25,000 square foot FFA Pavilion. The Indiana State FFA Officers, state staff and hundreds of FFA members have been working hard to get our largest annual public relations event created and ready to educate adults and children alike. I also traveled to New Jersey and Pennsylvania for a few partnership visits with FFA sponsors and visited Marian College where I will most likely be attending school this January, before returning for another day of work. While I spoke with many friends in Indiana FFA and from other states, one in particular this past week stopped me in my tracks.

As we painted walls, put up ponds, built structures and moved golf holes, I did a little catch-up work on some forms and documents concerning FFA travels and events before taking a lap around the building in the afternoon. As I passed the front doorway, I noticed Travis, one of my good friends who is also an active FFA member, sitting on a picnic table waiting for his ride home. We met two years ago at his chapter’s state fair set-up day, and we had become close friends since. I took a seat with Travis, and we began to chat. Like most, we had small talk about what has happened over the summer, what school classes will be like this fall, how his friends are doing and caught up on all the happenings from state FFA convention in June. Then, we began talking about how we cannot believe how these FFA connections really happen.

I had just been elected to serve as a state FFA officer and was collaborating with my teammates to set up the FFA Pavilion when Travis and I met literally two years prior. Through FFA conferences, conventions, chapter visits and other events, we had not only grown as fellow FFA members, we became friends. Travis and I have shared successes in FFA and defeats. We have gotten together to hang out when I come back to Indy, and we have texted back-and-forth when I have been on the road. Never, never did I realize that when I shook that sophomore’s hand two years ago, we’d become the best of friends.

FFA connects agriculture with the consumers, leaders with future career opportunities, alumni with current members, and connects young people with others every single day. Countless connections build young people in this dynamic organization, but these connections are only the beginning to incredible life-long friendships.

Your fellow FFA member,

Tyler