Thursday afternoon I was in Versailles to talk to Paige Gehret and her involvement with FFA. For those of you interested, Paige is former Commissioner Mike Rhoades’s granddaughter. Paige is also the proud owner of “Paige’s Patch*” a business she started in 8th grade while in the FFA program at Versailles. I remember Paige as a little girl….now she is a very pretty and smart young lady who is a freshman at OSU majoring in Horticulture Science. She was in town to do some work with the FFA chapter in Versailles, a part of her duties for FFA.
Elected as a State FFA officer, her duties involve more than working with other chapters in the State. She was at a day camp for a couple of days, doing training, going to D.C. lobbying and advocating for funding for some FFA programs, and now at the start of the school year she is starting her chapter visits. Not only is her summer been full, she is a National Proficiency Finalist, for completing her projects, several of them, including working at WTGR. Two years ago she got third in the state, last year she got second and won this year. In two weeks, she will go in for her interview, and she is prepared. She is a wonderful speaker, and what makes her so good is her positive attitude.
I asked her why Ohio State? She was mainly looking between Ohio State and Purdue. She ruled out Michigan State because of the cost. She liked the staff at OSU, and the American Horticulture Association is based in Columbus, so the fit was perfect. When she was younger, her family wanted her to go into the medical field. Her brothers went to college in Animal Science, so she thought about being an Animal Geneticist until her second year in FFA, when she signed up for livestock management class, but they didn’t have enough students for the class, so she switched to the Greenhouse management class, and the rest is history!
With all her interests, she still loves the pumpkin patch. She has worked at several greenhouses, and she has really never looked back. She is convinced that horticulture is the industry she wants to be in. She seems comfortable there, and when talking to her, you realize she knows her subject well. In 5 years, she hopes to be working in horticultural sales; she does do well in one-on-one conversations with people. She states her time in FFA has made her more confident and not afraid to speak. She hopes some internship work can lead to real job offers.
This was an enjoyable interview with Paige. She sees her future clearly and is working to make it happen. I asked her about the future of Paige’s Patch, and it will be alive for the foreseeable future. It is 1.1 acres and basically landlocked, so growth isn’t feasible, but it will continue! She does see herself having a larger operation in the future. While she is in school, Mom and Dad will help with the pumpkins, and when school is complete, then… well, we’ll see!
Ohio is a major agricultural state. Ohio FFA does tremendous work with our young people, and they turn out our future leaders. We hear a lot about today’s youth and how listless and uninvolved they seem. Not FFA Students! They are being taught by their parents and teachers the meaning of manual labor and the rewards for doing a good job. FFA will produce our future leaders; there is no question of that. So, for the thousands of FFA students in Ohio and other agriculture states, We Thank You; you have proven that our young people are going to be hard-working and successful. If there are more Paige Gehrets out there, we can rest easy… she is one of the good ones for sure!
*Paige’s Patch is located at 8265 Stuck Road, Yorkshire, Ohio 45338. Go visit sometime…The Gehrets are really good people!
