WEST LIBERTY – On Oct. 19-22, the West Liberty-Salem FFA chapter went to Indianapolis, Indiana. On the morning of Wednesday, Oct.19, the chapter joined Mechanicsburg and Ridgedale on a charter bus to head to Indianapolis. West Liberty-Salem brought 19 members and their advisor, Mrs. Havens, which was the most members of the three schools on the bus. At the first general session we heard Diana Nyad speak. Mrs. Nyad swam from Cuba to Florida on Sept. 2, 2013, on her 6th attempt and, at 60 years old, she finally made it.
“Live life as if you can’t do it a finger nail length better” Diana told all of the FFA members.
The next morning the chapters visited the Tyson plant where they got to see all the steps of packing and preparing hogs for slaughter, processing and packaging. Later that day we visited Fair Oaks Dairy Farm where we saw cows and sows give birth and toured their cattle and hog farm. To finish the night out they went attended the Buckeye Bash where the students had some time to have fun and just dance with other FFA students from all across Ohio.
On Friday we returned to convention and heard Jason Brown speak about how he went from a big time football player to a sweet potato farmer because he realized (after the death of his brother who was killed overseas while serving in the military) that “There’s more to life than self service”.
Abrah Meyer, who is the central region Vice President talked about listening to people rather than just hearing them in her closing address.
After being at convention all day our chapters returned to the hotel to do reflections where we talked about someone they met, how the trip has positively impacted them and their favorite part of the trip.
Saturday morning we arrived at the Indiana Colts Stadium to support our former members, Kayla King and Jordan Wolfe as they were awarded the highest degree possible through FFA, the American Degree before we headed back to Ohio.
