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Intern Insider: Miami East FFA Ag Day by Emily Beal

This past Friday, Miami East FFA held its annual Ag Day. This event is aimed to help spread agriculture awareness to the elementary students that attend. Miami County Farm Bureau had a tractor safety station at the event and Melinda Lee and I ran this station.

Our station was split into two parts, and we hoped this would keep the kids engaged in the activities a little bit longer. On Melinda’s side was a table with a poster filled with tractor safety facts. She went over these facts with the children who were quick to tell their stories about tractors they had encountered before. After she was done going over the safety points, each child was given a connect the dots that pictured a tractor. Given their laughter and attentive comments, you could tell the participants enjoyed this part of our station.

My half of the station was much more hands on, as the children had the opportunity to sit in a tractor all by themselves. For many kids, this was the first time they had been in a tractor, or so they told me. I was blown away by their curiosity. “What does this button do?” “Why are there so many levers in there?” “Where is the horn… can I honk it?” Many times, it was a struggle to get the child out of the cab because they wanted “just a little bit longer” to soak it all up.

After I got all the participants through sitting on the tractor, we then went over some tractor safety tips and facts. We spent a lot of time going over what a slow moving vehicle sign was, what it means and why it is important. I was surprised by how many of them already knew the gist of what the sign meant.

Besides Farm Bureau’s station, there were many other stations to learn from and enjoy. From a cow milking station to a petting zoo, these children were able to learn about agriculture all while having fun. While this was my first event as an Ohio Farm Bureau intern, it got me very excited for events down the road. I loved being able to interact with the public and help out a local FFA chapter. I look forward to all the outreach programs Ohio Farm Bureau will be participating in in the future.