Hello Friends!
Many of you know that I was elected to serve as a National FFA Officer in
October, 2007. I figured that this would be an excellent opportunity to
give a quick update on my travels and my year.
First and foremost, I must say that I have been incredibly blessed in the
last three months. The way I figure it, no 21 year old should get to
experience these awesome things. To everyone who helped me get here, THANK
YOU!
I finished up classes at K-State right before Thanksgiving. My professors
and the College of Ag staff were awesome in helping me finish early! After
Thanksgiving I and my 5 teammates traveled to Indianapolis, IN for training.
We spent nearly a month in Indy training on basic National FFA Organization
information, technology training, speeches, workshops, personal growth, etc.
We also traveled to California for a week to experience the diversity of
Agriculture. We saw everything from cauliflower and artichokes to 114,000
cattle feeding operation, orange groves, strawberries, and a meat packing
facility. I stood on the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. Its super
red!
We had a week of break time over Christmas, and returned back to Indy prior
to New Years Eve. I and my teammates celebrated in downtown Indy with a
night of ice skating, great Italian food, and a movie. We spent a few more
days polishing speeches, workshops, etc. Then we traveled to Delaware for
Experience Week. During the week we each presented workshops, speeches,
greetings, and met with key officials. We visited 13 schools across the
entire state, ate lunch with Delaware Governor Minner at the Governor's
Mansion and got to tour a couple of the universities in Delaware.
Following Delaware, we returned to Indy for a few more days of training.
This time for Business & Partner Tour visits. We also did some really cool
team development during this time. Tyler, Becky, Kari, and I then made a
quick trip to Vail, CO for 2 days of skiing. What a great time it was! We
also stopped by the National Western Stock Show in Denver. Following our
trip to Denver, the entire team traveled to Minneapolis, MN for the kick off
of our partnership visits. We started off the week with Mr. Jerry Rose,
Corporate VP, Cargill. We had an awesome day and half with the Cargill
folks. Brady and I then traveled to Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland
to meet with some of our key FFA partners and sponsors.
The team is now back in Indianapolis again for a little over a week. This
week we met with the Sponsors Board. Monday kicks off the National FFA Board
of Directors meeting, followed by National FFA Inservice. Phew-that is a
mouthful. And for the big trip.on February 4th we leave for Japan to
experience international agriculture, education, and culture!
That's about it for now. If you are interested in more detailed
information, please check out my blog. Click on the link below to access
blog, and some pictures too. If you haven't registered for MyFFA, its fast,
simple, and free. (after signing in, the link to our blogs is on the left
hand column about a third from the bottom of the column.)
http://www.ffa.org/index.cfm?method=c_security.ShowLoginPage
Also, if you have a few seconds and want to see my team in action, check out
some of the FFA Today (tv-show) spots. Click on the link below:
http://baxtercomm.com/ffa/
Score Board:
Miles Traveled: over 16,532
Number of States Since Election: 10
I would love to hear from you and how you are doing! Shoot me an email, or
facebook works too!
I pray all is well for you all!
Sincerely,
Morgan C. Parker
Central Region Vice President
National FFA Organization
