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flZT

FFA IN ACTION

llinois

I

llinois

"Missing"

Students

Flowering Trees on the Expressway

The

Heritage,Illinois,

FFA

Chapter'ssafetycommitteeor- ganizedaschoolwidepresenta- tiononthedangers ofdrug and/

oralcoholabusefocusedmainly ondrinkinganddriving.

The

committeeselected25 students at

random

from the studentbodytobeexamplesof

how

easily drinkinganddriv- ingcouldtake astudent'slife.

A

realistic time and cause of deathwereestablished foreach one of these students.

When

the time

came,

the "grim reaper"

would

go to that student's classroom to take themtothe"cemetery"(a

room

designatedatthebeginning of school). These students were then considered "deceased"

and werekeptinconfinement wherethey wouldnotbe seen by any other students for the restoftheday.

The

student body was in-

formedatthestartofthehour astothecircumstances oftheir

"death."

Tombstones were

made

by the"deceased" students to be placed on thetrophy case for additional recognition of the

members who

had"died."

Atthebeginning ofthesev- enth hour, the student body assembledtohearMrs.

Ty

anna Tozerspeak.

Her

presentation

was

stem and cast a sombre

mood

^overthestudentbody.

Tozer

wa

inan accidentin

May,

1988, the* nut her in a wheelchair.SheI. swiththe

memory

that onem, caused herso

much

painandsu! ring fortherestofherlife.

The

in

who

hither vehiclewasintoxi cated. Since hewasuninsured,

Cityof

Chicago

Mayor, RichardDaley,

met

with a

team

of

members and

advisorlUlrs.

Shaw, who

helpedplantover100 crabappletrees

on

the

Dan Ryan Expressway

infront ofthe

new and

old

Comiskey

baseballparksinChicago.

The

studentsare

FFA members

attheChicago High SchoolforAgriculturalScience.

They were

involvedwith plantingnurserytrees

and maintenance

atacity nursery nearO'HareAirport. ^•••

shehashadtofinancehermedi-

cal billsof over$250,000.

Despitethehardship,Tozer

iscurrentlyworkingtowardher Ph.d at the University ofIlli- nois.

And

althoughherpromis- ing basketball

dreams

at a former college were crushed, she has taught herselfto suc- ceedinwheelchairbasketball.

Thissafety program had a greatimpactonthestudentsat Heritage.Throughoutthe fol-

lowing days, students were continuing thierconversations about

how

theywereimpressed with the program.

The

pro-

gram made

students ponder abouttheseriousnessanddan- gersofdrinking,drivingoru.se

ofanyotherdrugs. Afterallit

couldreallyhappentoanyone.

'Kent

Downs and Dan

Ellis)

Kentucky

Downhill All the Way

With the support of their local

Alumni

affiliate, the Scott County, Kentucky,

FFA

Chapter

headed

east

on

askitripto BlueKnob, Pennsylvania inJanuary.

They were

hosted by Robert Cox, executivedirectoroftheNational

FFA

Alumni.

Afterskiing,the16 students, three

Alumni and two

advisors

went on

to Washington, D.C., foran educationaltour and visitedtheNational

FFA

CenterIn Alexandria,Virginia.

42 FFANew^Horizons

|ktTftKn»»

Wesley Barefoot

The

^dirtroad

^was

crawling withcars

and

trucics.

They were

every where...infrontofthehouse, in the driveway, and even pulled upintheyard.All thesepeople gathered justoutsideofDunn, NorthCarolina, to take partinatragedy.

It was auction day for

Wesley

Bare- foot, his family and their farm. It only tookafewhours,hesays, andthen,"ev- erything

we

had

worked for all of ourlives

was

sold."

Although

he was only 10 years old,

Wesley

re-

members

hisfavor- ite tractor, a

4620

John Deere, being loaded ontoatruck.

"I reallylikedthat tractor,andI

knew

it would neverre- turn.Thatmeanta lot to

me,"

says

Wesley.

"I

was

scared. It hurt to

watch

my

family andtosee the

emo-

tions."

Memories

of theauctioncuta deep

wound

forWesley.

"But

we

stillhadourhealthand fam-

ily," he says.

Two

years later

Wesley

almostlostthese thingstoo.

He

didn't see ^it coming.

He

doesn't

remember

thepickuptrucksmashinghis sideofthecar...theglassandmetalslicing his face or the ambulance ride to the hospital. All doctors could do in

Dunn

was clean the wound, pray, and hope Wesleysurvivedanotherambulanceride to

Duke

Medical Center. At that point, saysWesley'sdad,"Icouldhavelaid

my

handinsidehis face.

We

^weren'tsureifhe wouldliveordie."

When Wesley woke

upinthe hospital he

remembers

only one thing. "I

was

scared.

My

face was bandaged, and I April-May, 1992

could hear peopletalkingaboutthescarI

wouldhave."

One

hundredeightystitchesclosedhis severedface.

The

massofmetalandglass had

come

fractionsofan inchfromcutting the muscles that control facial and eye

movement.

One-eighth ofan inch lower and

Wesley

neverwould have beenable tosmileagain.

Wesley,

now

19, has farmed on his

own

andoperates a cotton picker repair business, butheoften thinks of the

day

his family's

farm went

bankrupt, andofthedayhe almost died.

He

says the ordeals shapedhislifeand determinedhis di- rection. "I've

wondered what would

have hap- penedifthere

was

noauction sale. 1

don't

know

if I

would have

farmed by myself orifIwould have

become

anationalofficer.

Maybe

spend- ing

some

ofthatenergy ofdoingthingson

my own

developed me. I think

my

life

would have been changed. 1 probably wouldn't have been as independent. I

would have hadajobworkingatthefarm.

But since that didn't exist anymore, 1

knew

I hadto get outon

my own

todo thingsI enjoy."

As

a 14-year-old,

Wesley

set out to create thejoband incomehe wanted.

He

talked his dad into signing fora$3,500 loan forhim.

Withthe

money

heboughta1963 Ford 2000 tractor and all the two-row equip-

ment

thatwentwithit.

Next

Wesley

rented 20 acres of land and grewcotton. "I did everything from 12-year-old

Wesley

displays

some

of

hisfavorite

John

Deeretoytractors.

He

has

more

than 200in his collection.

planting to marketing.

Dad

advisedme.

but 1 did 100 percent of everything." he says.

FarmingfitWesley.

He won

firstplace inthe national fibercrop proficiency con- test in 1988.

The

next year he and his brotherGlenn farmed 50acres together.

The

two boughtacottonpickerandhar- vestedcotton forotherfarmers.

Soon Glenntookover production du-

ties, and Wesley went into the cotton pickerrepairbusinessfulltime.

Allofthisexperienceinthe"realworld"

of businesshelped Wesley assume lead- ership positions in FF.-^.

"My

business prepared

me

for learning

how

todealwith different situations," saysWesley."Itgave

me

theconfidencetokno\^ Icanstartand finish projectson

my ow

n.

"And

having the wreck. ..coming so close to death...made

me

realize it's im- portant to try tofindout what \ou want, and togoafterit now." ^•••

•After thebankruptcy. Wesley'sfather,Jo- seph, worked for the auction

company

that sold their form,

and

in the custom cotton picking business. His

mom

Shelby,

became

a departmentstore

manager

in

home

furnishings

•Wesley'scotton picker repair businessin

Dunn,North Carolina,keptgrowing.It

now

employsfourpeople,tv/o full-time

and

two

part-time. His

dad

is running the business whileWesleyisonthe'road,

•Wesleyplanstomajorinagricultural busi- ness

management

at NorthCarolina State UniversityinRaleigh,North Carolina.

43