Typically, I am always afraid of the word "storm." If I hear anything about a thunderstorm coming, I usually pray that nothing bad happens and that the storm consists of five minutes of light sprinkles of rain and maybe one clap of thunder. If I hear that snow is coming, I pray that the temperature jumps 30 degrees by the next day and that the sun pops out so the snow melts so I'm not stuck at home (like I am now.) When I hear ice storm, I literally cringe at the thought of having no electric, no technology, and definitely not being able to leave the house! But from the time my team planned the event, "Storm the State" in November, I was counting down the days until the four day storm was underway. I was so excited to visit a part of the state that I rarely get to visit.
On Sunday January 2, 2011, I was headed for Western Kentucky (which became my home for the week) with Logan and Kevin. This was the day that I had been anticipating for the past month and a half. I was pumped as we drove nearly four hours to get to Audie's house in Webster county where we met up with Jake. Logan, Jake, and I were the "Western Kentucky group."
Our first day of Storm the State was a complete success. Logan, Jake, and I had lunch with the Webster and Crittenden county FFA officers to kick off our first day, then we traveled on over to Livingston Central High School to do our first workshop. We had a lot of fun with the members at LCHS, but our day didn't end there. That night, we drove to Paducah where we went bowling with the officers from Heath and Reidland! Jake lives in Paducah (which is where Heath and Reidland are located) and Logan and I went to camp with Heath and Reidland this past summer, so it was great to be reunited with them!
On Tuesday, we started out the day by doing a first period workshop at Lyon County. This class was a group of freshmen, but they were all very enthusiastic and extremely easy to work with! We left from Lyon County to travel to Caldwell County where we did two workshops. One of the workshops was in Mr. York's room with a very unique class. He had a class of all females and it was a shop class. That was something I had never heard of before, however, I absolutely loved it! Next, we moved on over to Trigg County where we did a double class workshop of over 50 students! We ate a good meal with Graves County that night, but unfortunately, that wasn't the end of our night.
We drove back to Paducah to Jake's house to pack up our things to go back to Audie's for the night, and on our way there, Jake got sick. Logan and I had no idea what to do, so Logan pulled over as often as Jake needed and I called his mom. After about an hour and 45 minutes, we finally arrived at Audie's where Audie's mom took care of him! She ended up taking him to the emergency room a few hours after we had gotten there and it turned out that Jake had kidney stones!! Jake's parents came to get him soon after the hospital visit, and sadly, that ended Jake's experience of Storm the State. (He is feeling better now though!!)
Wednesday morning, Logan and I headed to Henderson County where we stayed for a couple of hours to do three workshops. We headed to McLean County to do two workshops at the end of the school day. That night, we went to Owensboro to eat with the three Daviess County Chapters... Owensboro Catholic, Daviess County, and Apollo. We had around 20 members to come eat with us at Ole Hickory (which is a new favorite place to eat of mine.) That night, we stayed with Kaylee, a Green River Regional officer and the OCATH President!
Thursday, our final day of Storm the State was a big travel day. We started out by visiting with a few members from Ohio County, then driving to Union County where we did another double class workshop, and then to both of the Muhlenburg schools. That night, we ate in HOP TOWN where we had 35 members show up to eat with us!
All in all, the storm that happened in Western Kentucky was extremely successful. We visited with 23 schools, met over 530 FFA members, did 13 workshops, and traveled over 1,250 miles in four days!
The week of Storm the State is one of my most memorable weeks for sure. Not only during my year of state office, but in my lifetime.
Since the snow storm has left me cooped up in my house for the past couple of days, all I have thought about is the previous week that I spent in Western KY. I continuously look at pictures from the Storm the State and I have talked with many people that I met last week!
This is one storm that I was not afraid of. The word excitement doesn't even begin to describe my true feelings I had for the Storm. This is one storm that I would be completely fine with if it happened more often!
p.s - Stay safe in this snow storm that has moved across Kentucky this week!
Alex Land
Lake Cumberland State Vice President
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