Day at the Dome

Yesterday was the perfect summer day to celebrate the Foundation's annual Day at the Dome . Val Aarsvold, Lisa Morehouse, and the whole crew from the Foundation made sure supporters and members alike from three states got together to spend a day in good conversation, great food, and an exciting Twin's game. I really enjoyed catching up with many members, sponsors, and past officers that I hadn't seen since April or before. Getting to see Nikki who had been at camp last year; Pam, Dan, and Amber, past officers; foundation members like Sheryl Meshke, William Nelson, and Paul Hansen; the South Dakota State Officer Team, and all those smiling faces fresh from SGLC like the girls from Watertown and everyone from HLWW; was enough to make my week.

Somehow luck was on my side that day as each state (SD, ND, MN) had one representative to throw out a first pitch for the game. MN's was Brianne from Plainview - Elgin- Millville, who won the Foundation essay contest. ND had State President Darin, and SD was supposed to have State Reporter Josh. Unfortunately the South Dakota officers got caught in a parade in Minneapolis and couldn't make it in time and I happened to be standing in the right place at the right time as a very eager volunteer and Twin's fan (also lucky that Derek isn't much of a Twin's fan). Ask Brianne or Darin , I was bouncing - off - the-walls excited to have the chance to throw out a pitch. When SD finally did arrive, Josh eased my conscience by telling me he wasn't much of a baseball fan anyway and he really didn't mind missing it. The Twins broke my heart when they traded Torii Hunter but I might forgive them after this.

The icing on the cake for the entire day was a 5-0 Twins victory in inter-league play with the Brewers, meaning eleven wins in the last twelve games. Go Twins!!

State Greenhand Leadership Conference

The end of June can only mean one thing for Minnesota FFA, STATE GREENHAND LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE! Over the last week, 140 freshmen (almost sophomores really) joined us up north near Hackensack, MN for SGLC. The theme this year was "Go for the Gold" in honor of the upcoming Olympics. We spent some time learning new tools in sessions, getting our outdoor exercise (and mosquito bites) during rec time, and meeting many exciting members from around the state! There were the standby moments of camp like singing embarrassing songs to get mail, playing volleyball in the tournament (we were knocked out by Jake's team in the second round), and spending some quiet time during reflections. We also had some moments that made this camp truly a stand out like the amazing fiddle playing by Mr. Ryan Bart, and an exciting musical tribute to the Backstreet Boys, as well as learning MN FFA's new favorite dance song - Love, Liberty, and Disco.

Since the theme was Olympics, all of our cabins were named after countries and all of our small groups were named for events. I must say spending time with my rooms (we were England!) and my small group (Archery) were my highlights of the week!
Here is a quick video of all the girls from England sharing their favorite camp moments. Unfortunately it is sideways and I can't change it.




Thank you to everyone for a great week and I can't wait to see all of you during the rest of the year! SLCCL has a few more openings, see you in a few weeks!

Brainerd Alumni Picnic

Derek and I had a chance to accompany Cindy to the Brainerd Alumni Picnic on the way to Deep Portage. The event was astounding!! In only it's third year, the delicious dinner of grilled chicken, sweet corn, and ice cream drew hundreds of people all in support of the FFA. There was something for everyone from live music, to auctions, and even a special little farm hands style exhibit for kids. We even got to sit down and talk with Mr. Greg Gosen, MN FFA Alumni President to hear all of their exciting news. Everyone involved should be very proud of such a great day!

Sharpen the Saw

Since NLCSO and SGLC fall on back to back weeks, we thought it would be a good idea to take a little while off from FFA stuff (don't worry, it was only a few hours). Derek, Syd, Pete, Kaylee, and I spent the day making workbooks for camp and then got dressed up and headed to a musical tonight. It was great to see everyone looking so nice and it was a very fun way to kick back for a little while before heading to Hackensack in the morning!

NLCSO.. That's a Wrap

Well MN FFA, it's late on a Friday night. What exciting way am I spending my time? Doing laundry of course! We just returned from Aurora, NE and National Leadership Conference for State Officers. The thirteen of us (minus Trevor who was at WLC) headed down south (relatively speaking) for a very moving few days in the corn husker state.

The week in Nebraska positively flew by. We arrived Monday night after 9 hour trip which included a rousing game of My Cows and a supper stop in Norfolk, NE, birthplace of Johnny Carson. By Tuesday, we were ready to start the conference. It was presented by two national officers, Brady Revels and Kari Boettcher. Both were incredibly energetic, caring, and passionate and made the week very useful. I think I picked up a trace of Brady's southern accent and finally found my match in water volleyball skills (or lack there of) in Kari.

The theme this year was "Discover the Rhythm" and boy-oh-boy did that ever fit our team well. We are a bunch of music lovers so the catchy tunes and drumsticks made the conference a lot of fun. Over the next few days, we grew as a team through a variety of sessions focusing on things from overcoming conflict to current agricultural issues. Learning along side us were the state officer teams from Kansas, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Meeting these incredibly talented individuals was inspiring as well as a lot of fun!

Now we are moving forward to the meat and potatoes of our summer and our first real chance to put all of this great info from BLAST Off and NLCSO to use. Tomorrow (I guess it's technically today) we will meet up in St. Paul to finish our final camp preparations. Sunday we will head up to Deep Portage to set up and Monday is the start of State Greenhand Leadership Camp.

Much more will be coming from camp!! See you there!

Living to Serve

Yesterday, Derek, Sydney, and I had the opportunity to deliver the fleece blankets made by FFA members at state convention to a veteran's home.

The three of us had just finished college orientation at the U. We all piled into Derek's car with many many fleece blankets. I was the lucky person to sit in the backseat. We wedged a spot for me between the mountain of boxes and then Derek and Syd handed me a few more. I couldn't see anything but cardboard. (pictures to come!)

After an interesting map-quest led drive, we finally arrived at the veteran's home. We were greeted at the door by the volunteer coordinator and her smiling assistant. They were incredibly grateful for all the work the members did. They said the residents would be very excited to have something so nice and personal to call their own.

Thank you to everyone who participated in making the blankets at convention. You made a difference in the lives of over 70 residents and showed the staff at the veteran's home what values FFA members hold.
Thanks for living to serve.

Start of Summer

I hope everyone is enjoying the first days of summer! So far, I survived my high school graduation and have spent the majority of my days at home before summer gets really busy with the exception of tap practice each night (bet you didn't know I have tap danced for twelve years!). My first real FFA excursion was to St. Paul last Wednesday and Thursday for some meetings and team bonding.

On Wednesday, the officer team met to discuss key messages and the theme for the year. It was great to finally see everyone again. BLAST Off seems like a very long time ago.

Derek, Caitlin, Sydney, and Pete had some very exciting and hilarious stories from the Kansas State Convention. We were all excited to hear Ms. Emily Surdez (who spent a week here during our convention) was elected KS State President. I can't wait to see her and the rest of the new teams at NLCSO (National Leadership Conference for State Officers) in only a week! The four who went to KS were also kind enough to let Justin and I (we had to stay home to graduate) in on the fun by getting us some pretty awesome K-State T-shirts.

After we spent some time catching up on every one's lives over the last month, we finally got down to meeting. Ms. Sheryl Meshke of AMPI spent a very lively afternoon teaching us the keys to developing good messages and a meaningful theme. She made the time fly by and before long we had a list of potential themes.

Are brains were pretty fried by that time so we retired to Beta of Clovia and FarmHouse on the U Campus to change out of OD and then hit B Dubs (Buffalo Wild Wings) for a very fun supper together. Then we picked up a movie together and headed back to FarmHouse to work on the year theme as well as camp themes.

The next day, we worked through everything for Greenhand Camp and spent some time narrowing down our theme options. By the end of the day, we decided on "Experience the Legacy" for the 2008-2009 MN FFA theme.

Over the next week, Jake, Cindy, Shari, Trevor, Rachael, Kaylee, Cassie, and Mike will head down south the Austin, MN (birthplace of Spam!!) along with the rest of their region teams for a very exciting POWER conference. Derek, Sydney, and I will be at college orientation at the U of M and Justin will be doing the same at SDSU. Caitlin and Pete, college veterans as they are, get to skip it. All of us will meet up again on Monday to take off for NLCSO in Aurora, Nebraska, and then on to Greenhand camp which is full at this point. Many more posts to come, especially if my laptop arrives in time for NLCSO. There are still a few camp spots open for SLCCL but they are going fast so sign up now!

Goodbye for tonight!

We have a theme!!

I am very excited to announce the 2008-2009 MN FFA theme..

Experience the Legacy

This is the 80th year of MN FFA. This theme was chosen after much careful consideration to reflect our strong heritage of leadership as well as focus on the dynamic future of agriculture. In the words of Ms. Shari Yurczyk, "MN FFA is 80 and still looking good."
That's all for now but I will be posting again soon (today or tomorrow hopefully!).