Source: Candace Carrier
Jake Henry, February 24th, 2024
On February 24th FFA members and students of both Mrs. Gaertner and Mrs. Carrier’s classes help host Ag Day. Ag Day has been hosted at Blacksburg High School for a consecutive 20 years, the first year being 2004. Ag Day is a great way to get members of the school directly involved with the community while sharing something they love at the same time. Lucky enough I was able to cover this year’s Ag Day as well as participate as a helper.
I got to speak with Mrs. Gaertner a little bit about Ag Day and why she does it. Mrs. Gaertner and Mrs. Carrier took over the Ag Day in 2007 and have kept it running ever since. When I asked her the reason for holding Ag Day her response was, “The agriculture community is a bridge between young agriculturalists and a community that is constantly urbanizing. It is important to educate future generations about the principles of agriculture”. The whole idea of Ag Day is to connect with the kids who will potentially be future FFA members and also want to teach others about Agriculture. I also got to ask Mrs. Gaertner about her thoughts on this year's Ag Day and her favorite parts. Her response was, “I think Ag Day was very successful. We had an abundance of high schoolers and college students to support the program. My favorite part was seeing the relationships that students developed with the children and getting to see so many former students bring their children.” Without Mrs. Gaertener and Mrs. Carrier we wouldn’t have an Ag Day so we thank them so much for continuously holding the event.
Source: Candace Carrier
I also got to speak with FFA member Solenn Girardeau Montaut and high school student Riley Price about their thoughts on Ag Day. This was Riley’s first time participating in helping Ag Day and this was Solenn’s second time helping out. When I asked them why they help out for Ag Day Solenn responded, “To help support the FFA community and the Blacksburg Agricultural community” and, according to Riley, “I believe in the future of agriculture and love teaching kids about agriculture.” I asked them as well how they thought Ag Day went and what their favorite part was just to get a different perspective. Solenn said, “Ag Day went very well and the kids seemed to be very engaged with the stations''. She said her favorite part was, “The mini cow that they were able to bring in and the kids could interact with.” Riley said her favorite part was, “The mini pig that the kids were allowed to look and learn about.”
Source: Candace Carrier
Ag Day is a lot of fun and wouldn’t be the same without the help from our wonderful teachers and students willing to help out. It is more than just working as you can build personal connections with other members and the children who are the future and will soon want to help out as well. With teachers like Mrs. Gaertner and Mrs. Carrier and students willing to teach the young children, the future is bright in Agriculture and I am glad I was able to capture one of the many moments.
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