WE ARE PROUD to have had great participation at the recent Young Farmer & Rancher State Leadership Conference. Polk County Farm Bureau had 15 members of its YF&R Committee attend, and I’m pleased to announce that Polk’s YF&R Committee was recognized at the event with the Florida Farm Bureau YF&R Activity Award. Congratulations, Polk YF&R!
Polk YF&R Chair and State YF&R President Christian P. Spinosa has been selected as one of three finalists in the Florida Farm Bureau 2015 Excellence in Agriculture Award. PCFB extends its congratulations to Christian and our support for him as he moves on to the final presentation round of the competition that will take place at the Florida Farm Bureau Annual Conference in October. Congratulations, Christian!
We held our annual Youth Speech Contest on September 1 with seven local youth participating. Kathleen High School senior Lacee Richardson is the 2015 Polk County Farm Bureau Youth Speech Contest Winner. Amelia Parsons of Ridge Community High School and Taylor Ladd of Auburndale High School were runners-up in the contest. Congratulations to all students who participated!
The 2015 Hunger Shootout will take place on Saturday, September 19, and it looks like we will have another great turnout for this second annual event. Proceeds from the event will be used to support additional YF&R Scholarships for high school seniors pursuing a degree in agriculture and for the PCFB Women’s Committee charity, the Wild Game Food Bank. This is a local organization that coordinates the donation, processing, and distribution of wild game harvests to feed those in need. Our thanks to all who have signed up to participate and to the following sponsors of the event:
Bartow Ford
Cutrale Citrus
Field’s Equipment
Florida Farm Bureau Federation
Florida Farm & Ranch Supply
Growers Fertilizer
Hanson, Walter & Associates
Howard Fertilizer & Chemical
KMR Concrete
Maxijet
PGE Land Services
Pickett Engineering
PNC Bank
Polk GOP
Polk State College Foundation
Precision Citrus Hedging
Prudential Ag Investments
Sam H. Killebrew for State Representative District 41 (R)
Saunders Real Estate
Sawmill Citrus Nursery
Story Companies
The Mosaic Company
Warner University
Weikert Ford
Winfield Solutions
Finally, please don’t forget our 73rd Annual Membership Meeting that will be held on Tuesday, October 6, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the W.H. Stuart Center in Bartow. Our guest speaker, County Manager Jim Freeman, will present information on the state of the county. We hope you will plan to attend for what promises to be a very informative program. Call the Bartow office at (863) 533-0561, ext. 112, or email lorik@pcfb.org to RSVP or get more information. Our special thanks to Burks Financial Group, The Mosaic Company, and Peterson & Myers Law Firm for sponsoring this year’s Annual Membership Meeting event.
Sincerely,
KYLE R. STORY
President, Polk County Farm Bureau
