FFA Week and Michigan State Convention

Howdy Friends!

I hope everything is going well with each of you. I have had an amazing past few weeks. During National FFA Week, I found myself in the great state of Illinois. I started in the southern part of the state, and worked my way north during the week. It was great meeting and hanging out with the great FFA members of Illinois. My first visit was the Waterloo FFA Chapter where they were having an Alumni Pork Roast to kick off FFA week. I was very impressed with their Alumni and how they are supporting agricultural education. The week continued with visits to FFA chapters, colleges, and even the Maschoffs Pork Production Company.

I was joined during the week by Clayton, Austin, Andrew, Ben, and Annie, a great group of state officers! Mid-week we were fortunate to have a meeting with the Governor of Illinois Pat Quinn. Governor Quinn signed a proclamation for FFA Week for us.

While we were in Springfield, the state officers were nice enough to take me to see a couple of sights. We visited the old state capitol, the tomb of President Abraham Lincoln, and the Illinois FFA Center.

After our tour in Springfield, we headed north to tour more of the state.

The state officers also introduced me to the horseshoe. It is a glorious food item that is served in Illinois. It consists of two pieces of Texas toast, with whichever meat you choose on top, then french fries on that and it is all topped off with melted cheese! It was truly delicious! Thanks guys for introducing me to it, I can't wait to have another soon!

My final visit of the week was at the Chicago High School of Agricultural Sciences. I was very excited about this visit and I was not disappointed! The members at CHSAS are amazing, and are proud of what they are learning. I spent the morning at the school and the members were gracious enough to give me a tour of the facilities and show me many of their SAE projects. I got to hang out with many members including Mark and Mike! It was certainly a great end to a great week.

This previous week I attended my first state FFA convention in the Great Lakes State of Michigan. After landing in Lansing I was welcomed by Dustin, Andrea, Jillian, Ryan, Kaitlyn, Clint, Aaron, Chris, Julia, Elizabeth, Marie, and Maria a CRAZY group of state officers who love to work hard and play even harder!

The officers did an amazing job putting on their convention. While I was there I put on two workshops, and delivered a keynote to the general convention session. I also got to spend time hanging out with some awesome FFA members including Elizabeth and Ryan.

I also need to congratulate Michigan FFA for having a laser show at their convention for the first time! It was a really good laser show and the members were really pumped up and excited after it was over! I also need to wish the new state officer team good luck over the next year.

Until next time!

Riley