Dufur FFA attend national conference

“It was definitely the trip of a lifetime,” said Maddie Dollarhide, president of the Dufur FFA chapter. Also along were Maggie Lindhorst, Tora Timinsky, Konner Donovan and advisor Becky Boles.

They not only attended workshops, visited booths and loaded up on FFA swag at the convention, but they also hit some famous tourist spots nearby, including the Louisville Slugger baseball bat factory and Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby.

“Each and every day we were all taking in so much information and so many great things and connections that I really hope they continue to go in the future,” Dollarhide said.

She was grateful just for the experience, and to broaden their horizons and “whatever we could bring back to better ourselves and our chapter.”

The convention drew a whopping 68,000 people. Nationwide, FFA has more than 700,000 members.

Boles has been talking about the national convention since she began teaching at Dufur five years ago. As a competition event, it hosts teams and individuals who have won at the state level. State winners emerge from regional and district competitions.

But many others, like the Dufur delegation, attend not to compete, but to absorb knowledge. The conference featured a college fair and booths from various farming and producing companies.

The trip cost around $8,000. When students decided to go, Boles said they had to do some big fundraisers right away.

The school fronted some money, which students are paying back through fundraisers and donations they’ve raised.

“We wouldn’t be able to do it without our community because we had some great support from them,” Dollarhide said. “So we owe it all to them to give us this once in a lifetime experience.”

Dollarhide especially liked the keynote speaker, who discussed ag communications and focused on bridging the gap between producers and consumers. It offered tools for kids and adults “to help the public know what ag is up to,” she said.

The keynote speaker was a reporter with country roots who didn’t look the part, Dollarhide said. Her message was “you can still be an ag person, you don’t have to look the part to have the knowledge and spread awareness.”

FFA is the biggest national youth-led organization in the nation, she said, and it focuses on agriculture and leadership.

FFA works to spread awareness of the impact of agriculture on a wide swathe of American life, from the food we eat to the clothes we wear to the houses we live in.

Competitions in FFA range from parliamentary procedure to tractor contests like moving a pallet of water without spilling it.

Boles said everyone associates FFA with raising animals, but she has students who don’t even raise animals for their FFA project. “There’s always something for everyone in FFA, it’s pretty cool.”

Boles anticipates interest in going again next year, especially after the students came back with their interesting stories.

One humorous takeaway from the event, Dollarhide said, was a certain hair style. “The amount of mullets I saw was insane. So many. Oh, there were so many.”