Charles City FFA hosts Leadership Day

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

About 125 FFA students — 50 of them from Charles City — attended Charles City’s FFA Leadership Day, held Friday at the Youth Enrichment Center at the Floyd County Fairgrounds.

Several schools made the trip, including North Butler, North Union, Aplington-Parkersburg, Gladbrook-Reinbeck, Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock, Riceville, Crestwood and Jesup.

A national FFA officer was scheduled to attend, but had flight issues and couldn’t make it, however he was able to kick off the event via ZOOM. The Iowa FFA State Officer Team was there to conduct leadership workshops.

Charles City was unable to host the event the last two years due to COVID-19 restrictions, and FFA advisor Bret Spurgin said he was happy to be back at it after a two-year hiatus.

“This is a good day. It’s good to be back,” said Spurgin. “We always look forward to the state officers coming up here, and although we were disappointed that the national officer couldn’t make it, it was still a really good way for these kids to learn and develop leadership skills.”

Local ag leaders and FFA supporters Chuck Staudt and Larry Geerts spoke to the students. Comet Cafe provided the lunch.