#IAFFAWeek

National FFA Week is a crazy time for anyone that has a passion for the blue corduroy, and it was no different for the Iowa FFA Officers. Check out what each officer's week looked like in celebrating of National FFA Week!

Elisa: FFA Week was nothing short of amazing.  I was able to kick off the week with my home chapter of New Hampton.  Starting my last FFA Week in the blue jacket with the place where my journey in FFA began was pretty special.  My second visit was to Carroll Area FFA.  This program had a lot of events going on for FFA week like visiting the local nursing home to read to the residents and a faculty breakfast for their teachers.  Next, I visited Orient-Macksburg FFA.  This school is small (they have 12 students in their senior class!) but mighty! With almost 80% of the school in FFA, they celebrated FFA Week with a school wide bags tournament, and it was super intense!  I ended my week at Rock Valley FFA, where some members were crazy good at FFA Pictionary.  Rock Valley is also home to Rocket Manufacturing - a program where students pretty much have a job working in the school's shop completing orders and learning skills on how to manage a business! Check it out here: http://rocketmanufacturing.weebly.com/

Iowa FFA, thanks for making my FFA Week one I'll never forget! 

Chase: I was able to celebrate part of my National FFA Week with awesome FFA members from the Tri-Star FFA Chapter! I had the opportunity to speak to their student body about FFA and Agriculture as a whole, and then was able to see some students test their agriculture knowledge by shucking some corn, milking a cow, and making butter for their Ag Olympics! It brought me back to my high school days, and made me thankful for this organization for providing opportunities like this to make memories, and meet so many amazing people!

Savannah: National FFA Week was one I will never forget. Thank you to all the people who helped make it possible!! Shout out to Missy from Oelwein and the Moore's from North Mahaska for opening up their homes, and welcoming me as one of their own. I enjoyed my time traveling, presenting workshops, and interacting with students, but my favorite part was watching all the activities chapters spent months preparing for come together as they celebrated this great organization. One in particular was very special. Due to an observation course I am taking at college to help prepare me for my career as an agricultural educator, I got to see the work students put in outside of school to make this week possible. Although I didn't spend this week at Dewitt, I am very humbled to have witnessed their dedication and love for FFA. 

Cole: I started my FFA Week celebration on the road. Radio time was a common theme for me and the rest of my team this past week...I traveled over 1,000 miles myself.  Monday took to me New Hampton where Zach Hamilton, Chase Kusel, Elisa Russ, and I had a wonderful visit and really enjoyed our day. I absolutely loved getting to see all of the good things that are going on at Beckman and Maquoketa Valley on Wednesday. Zach Hamilton and I finished up the week with a rocking visit at Western Dubuque on Friday. They are a model of a chapter that has community and school support, as well as great and improving facilities, but most importantly, amazing students. Thanks for a great National FFA Week!

Zach Hamilton: National FFA Week is officially my favorite holiday, (sorry Christmas!), thanks to this past amazing week! I started my time hanging out with the Turkey Valley and New Hampton members! We had some awesome activities and got to see some rockin’ horticulture action in their greenhouse! From there, I headed over to the Carroll Area chapter with Elisa! We had some serious rockstar members who made some pretty awesome balloon towers and were a blast to hang out with! The next day I got to head on over to the Maquoketa Valley FFA Chapter where Cole and I did some cool workshops, chatted with some rad members, and tried out pineapple brats! (Yes, they had pineapple in them and they were delicious!) After that, I got to head back to my home area and visit North Scott! I had such an awesome time hanging out with members and just having fun! We made some awesome mini-golf courses and had a blast chatting about life! I also go the opportunity to stay later that night and watch a few of their CDE teams practice and hang out with those awesome people! I even got to give a member his first FFA jacket, which was such a neat feeling! The next day, Cole and I met up at Western Dubuque! The first thing we did is walk into an awesome faculty breakfast, and the rest of the day was just as amazing as their pancakes! I was so blessed to travel over 1,500 miles this past week and meet all of the amazing an inspiring people that Iowa FFA has to offer! Thank you Iowa FFA and I’ll see you all soon!

Blake: From Graettinger to Inwood then to Newell and Rock Valley, my National FFA Week was full to the brim with outstanding Northwest IA chapters. While I saw great membership and inspiring programs at every school, I've found one reoccurring fact to be true: every chapter has a uniqueness that sets it apart from the rest. Like in Rock Valley, their program has a business component where two periods of the day are dedicated to Rocket Manufacturing, a business run heavily by the students. At Graettinger, they have a building entirely separate from their school designated for Industrial Tech and Agriculture. These small differences are what make programs unique for every student, but the immense knowledge and passion for agriculture each student takes away will always be the same.

Cully: My National FFA Week was one I will never forget. Monday I kicked off with the South Hamilton FFA Chapter and made some nifty tie blankets and met many of their members, next I traveled to Belmond and had a blast with the Belmond-Klemme and Tall Corn FFA Chapters while I rode a smelly donkey. The second half of my week had me traveling to Orient with Elisa and checked out a truly historic school with some stellar members and lastly I had a short travel to Boone where I saw the incredible work of many passionate members. This week was a blast and I enjoyed every minute with every member I had the chance to meet!

Zach Hoffman: 2017 FFA Week was one for the books! I visited five FFA chapters and met hundreds of new members along the journey. I started the week with a visit to the ADM FFA Chapter on Monday, visited North Polk on Tuesday, made my way down to Southwest Iowa and visited Mount Ayr on Wednesday, Leon on Thursday and wrapped up the busy week with a visit to my home chapter of Creston. I never knew how much coffee could help you survive long days and short nights, but it is a blessing. I hope you had the chance to share your FFA story this past week, but remember, FFA can be celebrated all year long!