FFA members teach farming at ‘Ag Day’

WILLMAR - “I want to be a farmer!” was repeated over and over outside Kennedy Elementary School Yesterday during Willmar’s Future Farmers of America “Ag Day” which gave elementary students hands on experience with farm animals and machinery.
Eighteen Willmar high school students, two parents and two FFA advisors set up nine stations behind the football stadium at Kennedy that included: dogs, ducks, horses, bunnies, a dairy calf, a beef cow and calf, pigs, a four-wheeler and a tractor.
Each station had two or three FFA participants who taught the elementary students about the animal or machine at their station and answered any questions the younger students raised.
“Today is one of my favorite days.” said Katrina Benoit a junior at the Willmar High School and an FFA small animal participant. “We get to take a day off from being students to teach our areas of expertise to young kids; it is so great seeing them interact with these animals that some of them rarely get to see in person.”
The students were allowed to pet some of the animals, sit on the tractor and four-wheeler and learn how to safely interact with the different animals.
First Grade Teacher Katie Lafollette said that her kids love Ag Day. “They keep talking about the four-wheeler and the ducks. They just get so excited about all the animals and sitting on the machinery.”
 Ag Day is a long standing tradition and requires a lot of work from multiple families to bring animals and machinery from all over the area; but the Willmar FFA pulls it together with every year.
“It is a great thing that we get to do every year for the elementary and the high school FFA students.” said Kennedy Dean of Students Greg Ewing. “It gives these elementary students real exposure to the agricultural side of life and the high school students a chance to practice their skills as educators.”