FFA members continue doing to learn and living to serve during COVID-19
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues across the country, many schools have turned to e-learning, and after-school activities have come to a halt. What hasn’t ended, however, is FFA members living out the FFA motto: Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve.
Throughout the country, there are stories of FFA members and alumni reaching out to others in their communities—whether through assisting at food pantries, helping neighbors or continuing to work in essential roles.
The 2019-20 National FFA Officer Team is helping members by connecting via Facebook Live daily. On Fridays, National FFA Secretary Kourtney Lehman shares new things she has learned during this time—and then challenges other FFA members to learn new skills as well. Recently, she learned sign language, modeling part of the FFA motto, Doing to Learn, and the organization’s stance on inclusion. She then challenged other members to learn sign language as well.
And while FFA members continue to learn, they are also continuing to find ways to serve.
“Our youth can play a big role in making things better right now, and those who are healthy and able to volunteer have plenty of opportunities to get involved,” says Stefonie Sebastian, senior service engagement specialist for the National FFA Organization. “No effort is too small; it all counts.”
For example, FFA Life Member Taylor Lee Chambers-Scussel and her family at Fox Field Farm in Branford, Connecticut, is animal-sitting for Lyman Hall FFA Chapter’s mini jersey and alpacas. Members at Belmond-Klemme FFA in northern Iowa are partnering with True Value and the nonprofit environmental group Trees Forever to provide more than 40 garden starter kits to students willing to help at a time when they’re sitting at home. Each kit will include seeds with soil as well as instructions on how to plant and maintain crops. Eventually, the various crops will be transplanted into the community garden.
Members can find more ways to serve and participate in the Living to Serve Challenge, which is now also open to individual FFA members. More information on ways to serve can be found at www.ffa.org/livingtoserve.
