Building leadership at FFA summer camp

By Bobby Ellis
bobby.ellis@education.ky.gov

Now that school is out, there are countless different camps to help kids make productive time of their summer vacations. 

One such camp is the FFA Camp, held at the FFA Leadership Training Center in Hardinsburg over a period of several weeks. 

Attendees split their days between team-building activities, classes tailored to their specific interests such as advocacy, welding and archery, and competing against each other in sports such as volleyball, basketball and baseball. 

“It’s all about being able to take the knowledge you learn here and taking it back to better your chapter back home,” said Jackson Carter, a student at Franklin-Simpson High School (Simpson County), after completing a trust fall exercise. “We may not be able to do everything on our own, we may not even trust specific people within our groups, but we trust our chapters as a whole and can teach them to better themselves through what we know.” 

Students from FFA chapters across the state spend a week at each camp, divided into different colored teams, competing against each other in sports and hoping to end the week as the top team. 

“Team Purple is winning right now,” said Allison Knott, a student from Apollo High School (Daviess County). “It’s all about having fun and just enjoying yourself, … but the team in the lead gets to eat first at night, so yeah, it’s definitely a perk.” 

If you are interested in the FFA Camps, you can visit the Leadership Training Camp’s website for more information, here.