On October 22, 2024, at 4:00 AM, eleven FFA members and four chaperones left Clay County on their way to Indianapolis Indiana. On their way to the 97th annual national FFA convention. The group passed through multiple states, including Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio. The ride took over fifteen hours, and there were many stops, including at Berea University to take a three-hour long tour. The beginning of the ride was silent as most students were sleeping, but once it got later in the day it got louder as the students bonded by talking about what they were going to do when they got to the hotel. The students arrived at their hotel by 8:00 PM.
The first day in Indianapolis was exciting, waking up at 6 in the morning to leave the hotel by 8:00 AM. Once we made it to the convention center, the team split off to explore, with their chaperones. After wandering around the various shops and vendor booths we went to the first general meeting. Sitting in the Lucas Oil Stadium, with over 70,000 other FFA members, we took part in the first general meeting. The officers and president went over what would go on during the week we were there. We attended two different meetings, one of which included a speech from famous actor Temple Grandin, who gave a speech about her life and the impact FFA had on it.
To pass the time, many FFA members would gather around in the “FFA Mall.” This mall is essentially just a giant FFA merchandise store that also has various well-known brands set up around it. Some known brands were ARIAT and Wrangler. Some widely known people were Dale Brisby, Donnie Daytona, and Alva Steimez. You were able to buy all of the official dress accessories there, such as scarves, ties, and belt chains. You could also buy FFA merchandise such as hoodies, t-shirts, mugs, stickers, and much more. This was a very popular spot, as it was packed with over 30,000 members at one time.
Our FFA Chapter decided to not do mandatory official FFA dress, which includes the official FFA jacket, a white button-up shirt, black dress pants or a black knee-length skirt, stockings for the skirt, black dress shoes, and the official FFA scarf or tie. But when we got to the convention center and noticed everyone around us wearing official dress it inspired us. So the night before our last day at the center we went to the store and bought dress clothes that matched as best as we could. Mr. Brown told us not to worry about scarves and ties since nobody would notice we didn’t wear them. But little did we know that Mr. Brown was going to surprise all the members who went with the scarves and ties. It made our day when, even after all the other money he spent on us throughout the trip, he still decided to give us them.
