Hillsborough County Farm Bureau
100 S. Mulrennan Rd. E-mail:
info@hcfarmbureau.org
Valrico, FL 33594
Tel: (813) 685-9121
Fax: (813) 681-3779
Board of Directors: (click on a name to learn more about that board member)
Dale McClellan, President; Michelle Williamson, Vice-President;
Jemy Hinton, Treasurer; George
Coleman, Secretary; Glenn Harrell, Member-at-large;
Danny Aprile ,Bill Burnette, Dennis Carlton, Amanda Collins, Shawn Crocker,
Roy Davis, David Drawdy, Jim Dyer, Alvin Futch, Stefan Katzaras,
Greg Lehman, Carl Little, Caesar
Rinaldi, Leslie Laroque Turgeau and Ron
Wetherington
Judi Whitson, Executive Director
Insurance
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Accomplishments 2006 ~ 2007
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Ag-Venture at the State Fair was a huge hit again this year with over 10,000 visitors to the Farm Bureau/State Fair Ag-Venture hands-on exhibit. In this venue fair goers are invited to participate in such activities as: learn about a watershed, milk our milk able cow and make butter, and plant a radish seed necklace, visit out “germ City” and see just how good you wash (or don’t wash) you hands. There were over 2,400 volunteer hours worked on this project.
- Farm Bureau members are always ready to assist FFA members on projects. In the past year you have judged numerous FFA competitions throughout the county. From Parliamentary Procedure to Tractor Driving, our membership has been involved.
- Open Youth Competition at the Strawberry Festival, is an opportunity for young people to show off and be rewarded for the crafts, sewing and baking that they are so proud of. There were over 400 entries this year, with about 69 volunteer hours.
- HCFB again this year participated in Ag Literacy Day. This is a day set aside by FAITC9Florida Ag in the Classroom) to have volunteers in schools reading a pre selected book about agriculture and talking to students about where their food comes from. HCFB had 11 people in classrooms for a total of 28 volunteer hours.
- Farm Bureau Day in Tallahassee is always an exciting event. This past March HCFB had 11 people travel to Tallahassee to visit legislators from our area. Farm Bureau members held meetings with numerous House and Senate members, as well as Commissioner Bronson. Farm Bureau members spent 2 days in Tallahassee on their own time. Volunteer hours 528.
- Hillsborough County Legislative Delegation asked Farm Bureau to participate in the fourth annual Flavors of Hillsborough in Tallahassee last April. Again members traveled to The Capitol and met with legislators in an informal arena. Members cooked omelets, served strawberries and blueberry parfaits. This event again was done on Farm Bureau members’ own time. Volunteer hours 264.
- April is also the time that we hold Ag-Venture. The event in April is the smaller of the Ag-Venture’s. We had approximately 1200 3rd grade students through the program over a 2-week period. Volunteer hours 1,200.
- Ag-Abilities is a program designed for to test ESE students on horticulture and the food pyramid curriculum. This year we had 18 students involved with 62 volunteer hours.
- October is the second of the Ag-Venture programs. Ag-Venture is in full swing with 20 hands-on stations all representing agriculture in Hillsborough County. There were approximately 4200 3rd graders involved in the program, which ran for 8 days. Volunteer hours on this project - 1,600.
- Farm-City week is rapidly growing in recognition in Hillsborough County. The Farm City Festival under the direction of Stephen Gran, Ag Industry Development for Hillsborough County was a great success again this year. The program brings together commodity groups, extension programs and county departments in a park setting in downtown Tampa. Commodity groups are serving food to the 600+ guests, while industry, extension and other organizations are handing out literature about Hillsborough Agriculture industries. HCFB served Pumpkin Pie in a Bag, and logged about 21 volunteer hours.
- Monthly board meetings consume 290+ volunteer hours!
Total recorded volunteer hours for 2005 – 6,462