Financial institutions contribute funds to FFA

WILLISTON — Vermont FFA (Future Farmers of America) recently received $10,000 from Yankee Farm Credit and CoBank, two cooperative lending institutions in the Farm Credit System.
Bill Scott, Vermont FFA Foundation president, and Suzanne Buck, executive director of Vermont FFA, received the donations from Paul Franklin, Yankee Farm Credit’s board chairperson and George Putnam, president and CEO of Yankee Farm Credit. CoBank and Yankee Farm Credit each contributed $5,000.
CoBank’s contribution is part of their “Sharing Success” program, a $3 million matching grant program designed to benefit cooperatives and charitable groups they support throughout rural America. CoBank launched this program in 2012 to coincide with the United Nations’ “International Year of Cooperatives.”
Yankee Farm Credit’s Paul Franklin said: “On behalf of Yankee Farm Credit and CoBank, we are pleased to present to Vermont FFA two checks of $5,000 that we understand will go towards educating high school teachers of the benefits of FFA and to help you as individuals learn how to effectively advocate for yourselves and agriculture. As Commissioner Ross noted, it is important that you get a good education, be engaged in your communities, and be able to speak out on behalf of yourselves. We look forward to seeing the benefits of these funds.”
Vermont FFA Executive Director Suzanne Buck described how they will use the funds: “Vermont FFA Association along with our Foundation Board wrote a grant requesting funds to train our teachers about FFA and its many opportunities as we are finding ourselves in the position of new teachers without any background or knowledge of FFA. The other part of our grant request was to teach the students how to advocate for themselves for agriculture and to be able to do it in a manner that is respectful and thoughtful. FFA allows students the opportunities to explore their potential as leaders and as responsible young adults. They can be exposed to so many opportunities should they wish to open the door and accept the challenge.”

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