Fairfield FFA

Continued from page 6 the trip more than doubled in 2022.

“It’s more of a recruitment tool than anything else,” offered Dowty of the FFA trip, a four-day event that includes a presentation at Lucas Oil Stadium among its dozens of opportunities. “We may do overnight next year, with it being Wednesday through Saturday; that’s next year’s goal.”

Dowty mentioned throughout the year the Fairfield FFA program works on several aspects of everyday training, not just gearing to what’s going on in the farm fields and inside the equipment sheds. All throughout the year FFA works on Career Development Events and Leadership Development Events, and December and January are big months in recruiting for that.

There is a contest in March involving life skills and career skills, along with public speaking. Toss in demonstrations, speech contests, a quiz bowl on facts of FFA and ag history, and more professional skills mixed in, and the bowl of gumbo that is FFA is really as diverse as it’s ever been.

“There are over 50 different contests kids can do in FFA,” noted Dowty, who shared Fairfield has