September 30th, eight students on the Paulding FFA officer team and two members attended the Ohio Legislative Leadership Conference, which took place over zoom this year due to COVID-19 in the administration building at the school.
The members started off their morning by joining a zoom meeting, where there were many different agriculture speakers. The members heard from Rebecca Starlin the Ohio FFA State President, Ty Higgins a representative of Farm Bureau, and Bob Peterson a Senator from southern Ohio.
The speakers talked about farmer suicide rates, how it could be reduced and as FFA members what we could do. As a way to show farmers appreciation, the Paulding FFA chapter makes snack packs for farmers during harvest and planting season. Then members were then broken into small groups with state officers where they played Pictionary and then talked about ways that FFA members can make a change through agriculture advocacy. For example by encouraging others to start a grass root movement to make changes for the better.
We were later split into smaller groups and members had to tell how they became a FFA member and what they had to go through to get where they are now. There were many different stories due to people living in the country or the city and how there are many different projects that do not always have to do with animals. During this meeting members were socially distanced and enjoyed their virtual Ohio Legislative Leadership Conference and are looking forward to next year.
