A small group of youth and adults affiliated with the Athena-Weston School District recently flew across the country to expand their horizons. The four students from Weston-McEwen High School and their chaperones traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana, to attend the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo October 23-26. They packed a lot into their six-day trip.
Here were the attendees:
Charli Campbell, Junior
Bennett Cavalletto, Sophomore
Cara Feels, Senior & Chapter President
Dena Loiland, Junior & Chapter Reporter
Deb Glover, FFA Advisor
Destini Cavalletto, Trip Coordinator/Chaperone
Terrie Dennis, Science Teacher, Weston Middle School
Deb Glover is currently serving as the FFA Advisor at the high school. She was a teacher at AWSD for more than 30 years. She said it was quite an experience to travel so far to the event and to such a large city for those from small-town USA. “It was really great to be in an area of the country I had never been before and to see the agriculture in that area. It was also so amazing to see 70,000 students all wearing FFA blue jackets in one place,” Glover said. The Convention Center venue was huge, she said, probably the size of the town of Weston, as was the Lucas Oil Stadium where sessions were held.
During the trip, the group visited industry sites in Louisville, Kentucky, including Churchill Downs where the Kentucky Derby is run and the Sluggerville Museum that celebrates Louisville Slugger baseball bats as well as a candle making factory, Case implements, a barn for mounted police horses and a sheep farm.
WMHS students did not compete at this year’s convention. The intention of the trip was to meet new people, take in new experiences, applaud students from the local district and observe how the convention operates. Glover said students may compete in future years; she hopes that at the convention her students saw other students being honored for different work and say to themselves “I could do that.”
Dena Loiland, a Junior who went on the trip, said her favorite part of the convention was meeting new people from across the country and learning to better herself and the chapter. “I learned about balancing ideas across a group of people and some colleges that I will be doing more research on for my future career,” she said.
WMHS Sophomore Bennett Cavalletto said his favorite thing at the convention was the Expo and all of the different booths that were there. Also, he said he learned that the track at Churchill Downs is the same today as when it was built.
FFA Advisor Glover said another fun part of the event was seeing students from other Oregon FFA chapters and her students would high-five their Oregon colleagues. “At the convention, it was a wonderful experience to see so many respectful, polite and focused young people gathered there.”
