Charles City FFA hosts leadership day

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

About 135 FFA students from several area chapters gathered Friday at the Floyd County Enrichment Center at the fairgrounds for an FFA workshop, hosted by Charles City.

Bret Spurgin, Charles City ag teacher and FFA advisor, said Charles City FFA Leadership Day is an event that started last year. District and state FFA officers attend and put on workshops for local FFA students.

“If you look around, the kids are all talking and interacting, meeting people from other schools,” Spurgin said. “They’re working on those leadership skills and career skills that will help them in the future.”

All nine state FFA officers were there, as were three district FFA officers.

Iowa FFA President Chase “CD” Brinegar led one of the workshops. Brinegar, from Eddyville and a graduate of Eddyville-Blakesburg Fremont High School, is currently attending Kirkwood Community College, where he studies animal science. He plans to transfer to the University of Nebraska to finish his studies.

According to Charles City senior Blake Frascht, who is Charles City’s FFA president, the various workshops usually include a fun activity that includes a teachable moment.

“For the first couple minutes you get to know the leaders, and they get to know us,” Frascht said. “We talk, we usually play a little fun game, and then the fun game turns into a learning activity.”

One workshop, for example, was all about identifying agriculture opportunities. Another was about advocating for agriculture.

“We’re learning leadership skills that will help us for the rest of our lives, no matter what we do,” Frascht said. “Last year, the workshops focused a lot on time management. It’s a lot about communication this year, and about how to communicate better with others.”

About a dozen schools attended the Charles City-hosted event, including Waverly-Shell Rock, Vinton-Shellsburg, Starmont, MFL-MarMac, Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock, Nashua-Plainfield, West Fork, Aplington-Parkersburg and Clarion, among others.

“A lot of times in high school you don’t have the opportunity to meet FFA students in other districts,” Spurgin said. “We have Starmont here today — there aren’t very many opportunities for Charles City kids to interact with kids from Starmont.”

Spurgin said it’s a way for a student to broaden his or her horizon.

Frascht said, “Building those kinds of relationships is what FFA is about. You meet a lot of new people, during lunch and when you’re in your groups. There’s a lot of interacting going on.”

After several morning workshops, the group ate a lunch prepared by the Charles City Comet Cafe, which was a pasta bar that included meatless options, as it was a Friday during the Lenten season.

After more workshops in the afternoon, the event wrapped up with a closing session with all the students together. They reflected on the day, what they did, and what they learned.

Frascht said he isn’t interested personally in being a statewide FFA officer, but believes there are others in Charles City who might aspire to higher office.

“There’s a couple students in our FFA chapter who I could see running for that,” he said.