Estes: In sync with each other

It is no secret that I have a deep passion for anything related to vocational agriculture, especially when it comes to 4-H and FFA. This year I was lucky to have the opportunity to once again serve as a judge for the Leadership Development Events at the 92nd Indiana FFA State Convention.

I have been judging FFA contests at the state level for several years and even judged a round of prepared public speaking at the National FFA Convention.

Over the years I have judged a variety of competitive events, ranging from creed speaking to plant and soil science. This year, I and two other individuals served as the judges for the natural resources demonstration.

We were pleasantly surprised that we had individuals from 10 chapters who had won their district contests and advanced to the state level. There were a lot of amazing demonstrations, but one duo stood out.

The two individuals worked so well together, talking and moving in sync with each other. Turns out they had been best friends for almost seven years and did everything together.

What really amazed me was that one of the individuals was in a power wheelchair. However, he did not let that stop him, as he found simple ways to use the parts of his body that he could control to demonstrate the use of rain barrels.

The demonstration itself was really good, and they made our top four, but what really impressed me was the way that they didn’t let his disability get in the way and worked perfectly together.