I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your support of the youth and junior teams trip to Washington DC.
Thank you from the Youth and Junior Ambassador Team!
The team had the time of their lives. While we were only there a few short days they made the most out of every moment.
The teams arrived in DC on Sunday March 19 and made plans for the days ahead. On Monday morning they took off to the National Grange Headquarters where they were met by staff and a presentation from Legislative Assistant Sean O’Neil. Sean talked to the group about how the legislative world is set up, how bills become laws, and what the Grange does to make that happen. We then talked on specific policies set by our Grange delegates and which ones were of most importance for us to be talking to our Congressional leaders about. We continued our day with a tour of the United States Capitol building. And finished out with a trip to Maryland to hear Rural Minds founder Jeff Winton present on the importance of Rural Mental Health Awareness. The teams talked to Jeff for a good while and discussed how they could possibly make a difference with youth in Rural Communities.
On Tuesday morning we woke up ready to celebrate National Ag Day. The teams headed to the USDA for a welcome and briefing from many prominent people in the Ag world. Our team was inspired by the speakers and worked the room to make connections with other Ag based organizations. We then marched up the mall to see the famous Grange monument as we worked our way to capitol hill to meet with legislative representatives from each of the team’s home states. Each one of our team members met with someone from their home state and discussed items of importance to them, their Grange, and the National Grange. The heavy hitter with each team member is recognition that we need to be working harder for funding and destigmatizing mental health issues in all communities but especially rural ones. The team had a great experience meeting with each person. They had fantastic conversations and left their meetings inspired by what the potential supports could be like.
We closed out our wonderful trip with the Taste of Agriculture reception held at the Library of Congress. We mingled and networked with so many figures and some of our team members walked away with some great connections.
Again, we cannot express our gratitude for the support Potomac Grange provided to our teams and we are always so thankful to know that Potomac is there for us.