Indiana FFA members are getting set for another fun-filled National FFA Week which begins Saturday. The week-long tradition started in 1948 and always happens the week of George Washington’s birthday in recognition of his legacy as an agriculturalist and farmer.
“George Washington is the symbol of the treasurer,” said Indiana State Southern Region Vice President Mason Gordon, “and he is very much an icon, not only to the United States but to the national FFA organization. He is someone we look up to and he is definitely a servant-leader who dedicated himself fully to everything that he did and that’s what FFA members are striving to become all across the United States.”
Gordon told HAT the reason the week is set aside each year is “to united FFA members across the U.S. Right now there are over 629,000 members currently enrolled in the national FFA organization. It’s to unite all 629,000 of us to celebrate everything that FFA stands for and to continue to advocate for American agriculture.”
The Indiana state officers will be spreading out to reach local FFA chapters all across the state in the coming week.
“Myself and Josh Calhoun our State Sentinel will be in the northern part of the start. Sean (Harrington, Treasurer,) Annalee (Witte, Secretary) and Courtney (Adams, Reporter) will cover the central part of the state, and then Brett (Roberts, Northern Region VP) and Kenzie (Kretzmeier, President) will be in the south. So we’ll cover every county in the state of Indiana. We’ve been working for the past month on getting out the word that would be in your neck of the woods and FFA advisors had the opportunity to request state officers come to their event.”
He added there will be plenty of pancake breakfast events and efforts to note what members are doing today and for past members to come back to their local FFA chapter and have a chance to continue support of the organization.”
Remember the days of FFA students driving tractors to school during FFA Week? You might see some of that again this year.
“I was at the Rochester FFA and asked them what their highlight of FFA Week was,” Gordon said. “They said they were looking forward to driving their tractors in on Friday, so it’s still a tradition around the state.”
Indiana FFA will again this year include Page Day at the Statehouse Monday in their FFA Week events. Members will serve as pages allowing them to experience a full day of legislative activity, and FFA will also be honored with a joint resolution ceremony in both the House and Senate chambers.
FFA was founded by a group of young farmers in 1928 with a mission of preparing future generations for the challenges of feeding a growing population, a very familiar theme even now in 2016.