The 95th National FFA Convention and Expo is this week in downtown Indianapolis – and to kick off the event, the FFA has announced this year’s service projects.
“We’re super stoked for the week and we’re ready to get rolling,” said Seth Ariens, President of Indiana FFA. He and other FFA members started off this week’s National FFA Convention by – literally – getting their hands dirty! On Monday, they were holding trowels and working the dirt in front of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.
“We’re going to be planting bulbs for flowers in the spring. We’re helping out the gardeners and the horticulturalists at Newfields by planting these bulbs with them today,” said Ariens as he and his fellow Indiana FFA officers planted the tulip bulbs in front of the fountain that welcomes guests to the museum.
Newfields is one of 15 locations throughout Indianapolis and central Indiana where FFA members visiting the National FFA Convention will volunteer on service projects during the National Days of Service this week.
Jennifer Williams, Local Engagement Specialist with National FFA, says members can also get involved in this year’s on-site service project – which is also taking place during the convention on the Expo floor at the Indiana Convention Center.
“This year, we are making travel book pillows and have a partnership with a local organization called Book Pillows of Hope,” says Williams. “They are going to be constructing and sewing pillows that will eventually be stuffed with books and sent out to the community to children in need from birth to fifth grade.”
The goal is to put together more than 1,200 travel book pillows to provide comfort and hope to children who are facing tragedy or illness.
Seth says it’s all about living out the FFA’s motto of ‘Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve.’
“Every conference that we put on at the FFA Leadership Center, there’s usually some part of community service that we do with those conferences,” said Ariens. “We always are trying to work in that attitude of service and trying to teach students what it is like to have a servant heart and a servant attitude so they can go out and continue to carry that with them into their lives.”
Click HERE for the Book Pillows of Hope Facebook page.
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