Litchfield Group Had a Great Experience in Alabama
The Peanut Butter & Milk Festival Committee met on Tuesday evening and heard from the people who traveled to Hartford, Alabama earlier this month for the annual sister-city exchange trip. The group was in Alabama from November 2nd through the 9th and raved about the experience.
Litchfield High School FFA students Riley Joyer, Claire Gabrielson, Lydia Schultz and Tanner Sonsalla, chaperones Jim & Holly Cottington, Meeker County Dairy Princess Paige Frenchick and her chaperone, Hannah Molitor were all on the trip. Molitor says this was all new for her and said it was an incredible experience. Frenchick says one of the highlights for her was seeing the Working Cow dairy, one of the few dairy farms in the whole state of Alabama where they milk 900 cows once a day.
Jim Cottington who was on the first trip in 1971 as a 12-year-old with his parents, Bruce & Florence Cottington, and also for the 40th anniversary trip in 2011, says it was a fabulous trip with the Southern hospitality. He says there are so many similarities between Litchfield and Hartford and the exchange programs that each coordinates. Holly Cottington says she enjoyed their day at the beach, but they were not able to go in the water due to riptides.
Claire Gabrielson says they got to fly helicopter simulators at Ft. Rucker, a part of the trip that had been off limits since 2001, and says learning about the peanut and cotton industries and meeting new people was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Tanner Sonsalla described his experiences through a slide show and says he enjoyed visiting a bee farm, the National Peanut Festival, the Michelin tire plant and seeing how peanuts are harvested. He says it was raining so they did not get to witness the cotton harvesting, but did get to see the large combines.
Riley Joyer and Lydia Schultz were not able to attend Tuesday’s meeting, but Lydia put together a slide show with all of her highlights from the week. The Peanut Butter & Milk Festival Committee is getting ready for hosting visitors from Hartford the week of February 1st. The next Peanut Butter & Milk Festival Committee meeting which will be on December 17th at 7 p.m. in the Litchfield High School Ag Room. Everyone is welcome to attend, and to get involved in the program.
