Rowan County event raises $30K for FFA
Event participants included (front row, left to right) Isaac Davenport, state FFA vice president; Alicia Wade, state FFA vice president; Ashley Yopp, state FFA president; Laura Hoffner, past state FFA president; (back row) Joshua Starling, N.C. FFA Foundation; Jim Ed Beach, Bayer CropScience, president of the N.C. FFA Foundation; Richard Childress, NASCAR; state Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler; Tom Smith, former president and CEO of Food Lion Inc.; Gerald Barlowe, state agricultural education leader; and Jason Davis, state FFA coordinator.
Photo by Daniel Kim
The Salisbury home of retired Food Lion CEO Tom Smith and his wife, Martha, was the site of an October fund-raiser to benefit the North Carolina FFA Center in White Lake. The Smiths shared hosting duties with N.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler and NASCAR championship team owner Richard Childress at the event, which raised more than $30,000 for the North Carolina FFA Foundation's $3 million "Building for the Future" capital campaign in support of the White Lake center. The funds will address some of the most immediate needs at the center, including a new dining hall and recreation facility to replace structures built in the 1920s, as well as meeting space, a new kitchen, office space and parking areas to accommodate school buses, vans and other vehicles.
The North Carolina FFA Center, formerly known as the R.J. Peeler FFA Camp, was built in the 1920s and was one of the first facilities of its kind in the United States. FFA members have met there every summer since 1928, except for two years closed during World War II. It is now the FFA's only official camp in North Carolina. More than 7,000 visitors, including 1,700 FFA members, come annually to the center, which offers four weeks of recreation camp and two weeks of the FFA State Leadership Conference.
The N.C. FFA Foundation is headquartered at N.C. State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. It provides financial support and public awareness for agricultural education and FFA.
-Terri Leith
The North Carolina FFA Center, formerly known as the R.J. Peeler FFA Camp, was built in the 1920s and was one of the first facilities of its kind in the United States. FFA members have met there every summer since 1928, except for two years closed during World War II. It is now the FFA's only official camp in North Carolina. More than 7,000 visitors, including 1,700 FFA members, come annually to the center, which offers four weeks of recreation camp and two weeks of the FFA State Leadership Conference.
The N.C. FFA Foundation is headquartered at N.C. State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. It provides financial support and public awareness for agricultural education and FFA.
-Terri Leith