Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

     It is understandable that there comes a point in life where we start to worry about getting older. Usually this happens somewhere around our 29^th year when 30 is staring you in the face and you begin to think it might be time to start looking into long term care insurance. Sometimes though events occur that bring one to a place where your past and present meet in one place.

      This past week I was reunited with a few voices and names from the past, which made my mind, turn back in time to my high school days some 25 years ago. I was never overly athletic as a child and shied away from sports when it became more than just playing the games for fun. That fact coupled with finding a blue corduroy jacket hanging in the hall closet of my childhood home pointed me towards FFA.

     I was a little more into it than most of the other kids my freshman year and as that year came to an end, we stood face to face with the fact that the school board wanted to end the program. I don’t know the circumstances but I’m sure public outcry and some back room deal put us on double secret probation for one more year and suddenly the lives of our agriculture students would change forever. Everything changed the day Barb Hansen; now Barb Osborn, walked into the Redfield city park for the meet the agriculture community potluck. She was smart, and fresh, and eager and more importantly saw something in each one of us that we didn’t see in ourselves.

     I remember well the trip that fall to the National Convention in Kansas City. I had gone the year before, but remembered little of that trip, but this time was different. There is something magical about Convention. Maybe it is the blue and gold kool-aid that we all drank a little of, or perhaps it was just knowing that the organization was bigger than just our small chapter, but I remember well seeing old friends and standing on the floor in the old Municipal Auditorium as my view of what I could be changed yet again.

     We stood there nervously as they started to announce the new national officer team. When we heard the name Kevin Eblen’s name announced as National President the roar of the delegates and our own choir of voices drowned out the noise of the speaker. For on that morning, each one of us that wore a jacket with “Iowa” stitched into the back took pride in having the boy from Creston: one of our very own, be given the highest office in the organization. He was only the 4^th Iowan to be elected to that office and we could have floated home on cloud nine that weekend.

     Over the next few months Barb began to plant the seed in my head that I could run for office. Oh sure, I wasn’t any Kevin Eblen, but maybe I just had enough talent in the leadership department to pull it off. It wasn’t an easy road and to be honest, I lost the first election, but went on to try again, first holding a District Office, then being elected to a State Office my senior year. Shortly after the election I ran into Kevin and had a few minutes to talk with him. I asked him what was the most important lesson I could learn that would help me as an officer. His answer was simply, “Take time for people who need you, no matter how busy you are.” It was good advice then and now.

     This past week, the vibrant, successful, forty-six year old Creston boy that became one of my hero’s passed away unexpectedly after a stroke. Reading through comments on his memorial page and phone calls and notes from my own FFA contacts, it was easy to see the impact that he had on so many of us over the years. It’s hard to think that he is gone at such and early age, especially when I’m not that far behind him. He will live on in our collective memories and in the lives of others, as he was an organ donor.

     It is a shame in a way that he wasn’t here to listen and read what has been said and written about him. I think in a way he would have gotten a kick out of it, but also would have brushed it off in the humble way he interacted with other people. When I first sat down to write this week, I had intended to make this column completely about him, but then I realized that the true story here was about the two people who formed my FFA experience into what it was.

     Kevin gave me inspiration and pride and some really good advice, and Barb….well she gave me friendship, mentoring, courage….and the nickname Weez. I’m glad she’s still around because it would really be a shame to wait to tell her just how honored I was to be her student, and how humbled I am to call her my friend.

See you next week….remember, we’re all in this together.