The Cannon Falls FFA chapter was busy in Indianapolis during the national FFA convention and expo on October 22-26.
The state-winning prepared public speaker was Cameron Addington, who placed third in the nation with his speech about Avian Influenza. Here is what Addington said about competing at nationals: “It was an incredible experience. I am super blessed to be able to compete at nationals.”
There were many things to do at the convention, such as the career fair where one can learn about what options lay after high school, with more than 300 different booths for FFA members to look at. There were workshop sessions too, and you could watch finals of LDE such as creed speaking, prepared public speaking, and extemporaneous speaking. The shopping mall had an FFA mega store, an Ariat store, and many more. At night, there was entertainment that was available to attend. The members on Wednesday went to a Meghan Moroney concert. Then, on Friday night, the members went to a rodeo. Carpenter said his favorite part of the convention was “watching the finals for prepared public speaking and meeting the competition winner, Coy Davidson.” Kolton Fick said that his favorite part was “walking around and talking to schools about welding and watching Cam speak.”
When the members were not at the expo, they went on tours on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, on the way down to Indianapolis, the Cannon Falls FFA members stopped at the CAT Visitor Center, at the University of Illinois Pollinarium. On Wednesday the members went to 3 places: Indianapolis Lincoln Tech, a tech college, Traderspoint Creamery, a local organic creamery that has a restaurant and a store, and the Schakolad Chocolate Factory, where the members got to learn how chocolate is made and they got to make there own chocolate. Emma Neuman said, “My favorite tour was the Traderspoint Creamery because of the views of nature that was there.” Mackenzie Killmer said, “My favorite tour was the Lincoln Tech Tour because it showed what jobs you can do with little schooling.”
