Why'd the chicken cross the road? To get to the Fire Station!

I got to explore some cool SAE's during my time here in Albion. This trip took me to a fire station and to a local home of student.

Drake with one of chickens

Drake has explored a variety of SAE's. His first SAE involved employment at Albion Home Sales and Services. There he cared for and maintained the various trailer rentals that the establishment owned. That summer, he decided to try his hand at landscaping with his neighbor. He currently is employed at Camp Fitch YMCA as a dishwasher. He has been there since Thanksgiving. Also somewhere in there he wanted to try his hand at raising chickens. He built a solar powered heat source for his chickens! How neat and ingenuitive! His flock includes an assortment of 20 chickens.

H.P. Weldon Farm Strawberry Crops

At the fire station, I got to talk to sister's Julie and Brooke Edwards. The oldest sister, Julie, has four different SAE projects. These projects include her horses, working on a production crop farm, and serving as a firefighter in the Springfield Volunteer Fire Department and 2017 Albion Area Fair Queen. Julie has a Quarter Horse gelding that she competes in local 4H shows with, typically in gaming. She also works at H.P. Weldon Farms, a production crop farm that also raises beef cattle. She works with maintaining and harvesting crops, along with some customer service when needed. Julie has also been a volunteer firefighter since she was 14 years old. She is a certified firefighter and vehicle rescue technician, with hopes of becoming an EMT in the next few years. Finally, Julie serves as the 2017 Albion Area Fair Queen, a title that she holds passionately in hopes of advocating agriculture to young people in her community.

Brooke with Mack

Brooke also completes an SAE on her horses and working on a farm. She shows at local fairs and in 4-H competitions. She competes in 3 summer qualifier shows, and if she does well she advances to districts and then states. She competes in gaming, showmanship, and english pleasure classes. She also works at H.P. Weldon Farms, where her main task is picking strawberries and corn during there harvest seasons. During the off-season she helps with general tasks around the farm.

Julie telling us all about the trucks!