2009 Ag Progress Days

             Every year, thousands gather at the Rock Springs Agricultural Research site on the outskirts of State College, Pennsylvania for an event known as Agricultural Progress Days. Organized and run by The Pennsylvania State University, Ag Progress Days is the largest outdoor Agricultural event in Pennsylvania. From the corn maze to hot pulled pork BBQ sandwiches at the PA FFA Foundation food booth, this three-day event encompassed anything you can think of that relates to Agriculture.

            The state officer team was very excited to get started at APD, so when we arrived on the site on Monday, we got straight to work. Other than helping with the PA FFA Foundation Hatfield food booth, the state officers were placed in control of an interactive youth exhibit in the 4-H Youth Building that represents PA FFA. Part of Monday was spent setting up this interactive booth, while the rest of the day was spent on assembling the Hatfield booth and inflating Smiley, the 15-foot Hatfield Pig!

Tuesday morning held some good experiences, as some state officers had never worked in a food booth, let alone a food booth in which Mr. Brammer would take cheese dog orders in the form of “one slimy dog!” Soon enough, everyone was adjusted and moving efficiently to serve the Ag Progress Days attendees their fair share of Hatfield pork! After we all helped get the food booth ready in the morning, we split off into three small groups in order to cycle everyone through and give them resting time, because everyone knows it is a hard time grilling hot dogs for 3 hours straight! The three groups were positioned at the food booth, at the PA FFA display booth, and on the APD grounds, exploring Agriculture’s progress.

Working in the food booth was not only exciting due to the crowd, but it was also an enjoyable experience behind the counter because of all the other great servicemen (and women!). The PA FFA Foundation food booth not only had help from the state officer team, but from many different PA chapter members as well! Hopefully the members from Bradford Area, Littlestown, Somerset CTC, Blue Juniata, Milton S. Hershey, Wilmington, Conococheague, and McConnellsburg had as awesome of a time as the state officers did! They probably think we’re all pretty crazy, but at least we weren’t the ones shouting “one hairy dog coming up!” when someone ordered a sauerkraut hot dog.

For the PA FFA interactive booth, the team concocted a theme that focused on the many faces of Agriculture. We had already prepared (in various different ways) over 2,000 simple paper plates that had eye holes cut in them and popsicle sticks glued onto them to serve the purpose of a mask. The children that came through the Youth Room were able to come to the booth, grab a mask and some markers, and create a mask of anything that related to Agriculture! We also had a large map of Pennsylvania which outlined all of the counties in the state. The children that came through the booth were able to write their name on a colorful post it note and then stick it on the map wherever they lived in the state. We thought this would be a cool idea not only to see how many kids that came through, but also to see where they were from. It was really neat when we had children who couldn’t technically go on the PA map because they were from the Bahamas, Mexico, China, and New York! Talk about Agricultural Progress! Soon enough, the booth was filled with kids from all over the state (and world) making masks that depicted anything from tractors to trees to horses! While the kids were creating their masks, their parents could read up on some interesting FFA and Agriculture facts that were posted around the booth. Although not all of the plates were used, we felt the interactive display was a great success and we hope the kids had as much fun as we did!

            Tuesday went well, as the entire team had the opportunity to work with children, pork, and other APD exhibitors. And while everyone was a bit tired on Tuesday night, they all knew what was coming Wednesday, the longest day of the week. Wednesday of Ag Progress Days is usually the busiest, as it runs from 8 in the morning till 8 at night (Tuesday is only 9-5). We started the day fresh and early and arrived on site in Official Dress for a few morning items. We were able to meet with some state 4-H leaders and the Secretary of Agriculture, Dennis Wolff, before attending an official panel discussion of the Feed and Grain Task Force. At this meeting, the team was able to be in the company of various Pennsylvania Agriculture officials as well as the USDA deputy secretary of Agriculture as they discussed the current issues and future of the Feed and Grain Industry.

After a delicious BBQ legislative luncheon with some more officials, both in legislature and agriculture, the team was able to change out of their wonderfully insulated corduroy jackets and back into the proper attire for serving BBQ sandwiches.  The rest of Wednesday kept everyone busy and, once the end of the day came, everyone was very appreciative of comfortable hotel beds.

            Thursday was an easy task compared to Wednesday’s full schedule, but a few officers had to leave for another service obligation at an Altoona Golf Tournament. While we were a little short-staffed, we managed to bring many children in to make masks and serve food to many hungry ag-lovers.

            Overall, the three-day event was a wonderful success due to the fact that we were able to experience new aspects of service and we were able to observe all of the areas of Agriculture that were on display. We left Rock Springs on that warm Thursday evening tired, yet satisfied of our experiences at Ag Progress Days.