For Osceola Big Chief FFA sophomore Emilee Boyd, her SAE (supervised agricultural experience) project this year was a little bit different than ones that have been done in prior years. Instead of choosing to focus on an area of agriculture for her SAE, Emilee instead looked towards a community service one, filling bags to give to homeless people in Indianapolis.
The spark
The idea originally came to Emilee after the 2022 National FFA Convention, which is held annually in Indianapolis, Indiana. Emilee said the FFA members who went to Indianapolis last year came back and talked about the large homeless population they had seen, and it sparked an idea in her to do something to help.
“I decided to make a difference and make bags for them,” said Emilee.
She filled 50 drawstring bags with hygiene products, granola bars and water. Of those 50 bags, about half went with the FFA group to Indianapolis in November to be handed out. With each bag given, Emilee saw the positive impact it had on the people they gave them to.
“Everyone we gave a bag to, they all had a smile on their face…it definitely made their day a lot better…they were very thankful,” said Emilee, who aspires to be a nurse.
As the FFA members walked around downtown Indianapolis looking for someone to benefit from Emilee’s project, they came upon some police officers who had been handing out Halloween candy. Some people from a homeless shelter had just left the area, and they called them to come back so the group could give them bags to take back to the shelter.
“That was pretty cool,” said Emilee.
The kids took pictures with the police chief, some police staff and outreach members for the homeless community. FFA advisor Brandi Boyd said that the police chief was impressed with Emilee’s project and her fellow member’s willingness to help with it. He gave each of the kids a pin that he’d been given by the National FFA that were to be used to recognize students who were being kind, which was a special thing for each of them to receive.
“The kids didn’t realize it was even a thing until they started handing them out,” said Brandi.
When they got back to Iowa, the remaining bags were donated to the Clarke County Schools food pantry.
Skills learned
The experience not only showed Emilee how valuable and rewarding it is to help others, but also helped her improve her communication, organization and teamwork skills.
Emilee gave a presentation at the October board meeting of the Clarke County Development Corporation (CCDC) about her SAE project and asked for a donation. CCDC granted the donation request in the amount of $500 to be used to purchase supplies.
“I knew I was doing something for a good cause, so that made me more confident,” said Emilee of speaking in front of the CCDC board.
She worked with her fellow FFA members to put the bags together, and organized how to do so. For both Emilee and Brandi, Emilee’s SAE shows that FFA can be valuable for those kids who want to improve in leadership skills but not necessarily pursue an agriculture career, and hopes this project will inspire others. And for some, it already has.
“One of the girls [said] that it was so cool to her, just watching us give the bags out, and she was just talking about how when she gave a bag out, he was so happy,” said Emilee.
“From an advisor standpoint, her doing this type of project I think shows other kids, well gosh, I could do a project in FFA and it doesn’t have to be related specifically, or directly, to production agriculture, it could be something with people skills and building my leadership and things like that. That’s exciting for me to have her do a project like this,” said Brandi.
When asked if she’d do this again next year, Emilee said “yes,” as well as do so locally.
“It makes their day so much better and puts a smile on their face,” said Emilee.
Brandi said it was great to see a student thinking of how to help others, and taking the initiative to do so.
“...to see a need in their community and then do something about it. That’s the big piece I feel like for me, is she took action and she looked for a problem and looked for ways to solve that problem. I love that,” said Brandi.
Stats
According to a 2022 study conducted by Indiana University, there are approximately 1,761 people experiencing homelessness in Marion County, Indiana, where Indianapolis is located; the study found this was a 9% decrease from their 2021 study. Of those 1,761 people, 1,559 were listed as sheltered individuals and 202 as non-sheltered (https://www.chipindy.org/uploads/1/3/3/1/133118768/final-pit-2022-report_crisp.pdf).