East Central RLC

The Tuesday of the East Central Regional Leadership Conference came quickly. Daniel and I scrambled about the office that morning preparing for an afternoon of Greenhand workshops. I tried to stay calm, but Daniel has the ability to perfectly imitate a whirling dervish and seems to be everywhere at once. After gathering all our materials, we were ready to set out for South Granville High School in Creedmoor, North Carolina. We loaded up the Explorer and off we went.

I started off strong by entering the parking lot through the gate that plainly stated DO NOT ENTER. In my defense, I didn't see both signs until after they had already past. Luckily they were no cars coming. Safely parked, we grabbed our stuff and headed into the high school.

School hadn't dismissed yet, so Daniel and I waited outside the room where we were to present. In the interim, we talked with the regional officers who were bursting with energy for their first workshops. Forty-five minutes later, our room set up, Daniel and I headed down to the mouth of the school to greet the arriving FFA members. The majority of students arrived in a ten minute span and we were inundated with fresh and familiar faces. Students we knew, students we didn't, all of them flooded through the doors of South Granville.

It wasn't long before opening ceremonies started and the masses headed for the auditorium. John Stewart presided over the RLC and the rest of the team belted out their opening ceremonies and recognized special guests. The faintest hint of nervousness found in their voices disappeared as they all quickly gained confidence did an outstanding job.

Soon it was time for the students to head to their workshops. Daniel and I rushed to our room to greet our group of students. We were charged with enlightening Greenhands with the abundant opportunitites available to them in FFA. I thought our workshops went well. We made some new friends, played a few games, and hopefully inspired a few Greenhands to jump into FFA head first.