Convention Bus
For members of the Mackay FFA Chapter in Idaho, traveling by bus to the National FFA Convention & Expo is a rite of passage. For almost 40 years, Mackay FFA members have organized their own bus trip to convention, planning every detail including hotel accommodations and sightseeing tours along the route. The 75-hour round-trip journey from Idaho to Indianapolis spans 11 days and multiple states, and the trip always leaves members with unforgettable memories.
“We have many students whose parents went on this trip when they were in high school here, so they are excited about it; it’s a longstanding tradition for our chapter,” says Trent Van Leuven, Mackay FFA advisor. “Mr. Vernon Roche was our chapter advisor when the tradition started in 1987, and he retired in 2013. Around the year 2000, they bought a 1989 Eagle bus for members to travel in, and that bus lasted us until about four years ago when we bought our own tour bus. Our first bus was called the Roche Coach after Mr. Roche.”
Van Leuven became the Mackay FFA advisor in 2014 and kept the traditional bus trip to convention going. Mackay FFA members from ninth through 12th grade are eligible to attend, and eighth grade members help plan it each year. Van Leuven takes turns driving the bus with parent chaperones who have a commercial driver’s license.
“We have three different routes we can take,” Van Leuven says. “We always go through Nashville and go to the Grand Ole Opry. I Google what cities we will stay overnight in, and the students call hotels and negotiate rates. Our eighth graders always get to pick the next year’s route. The whole school gets excited about us going.”
FFA members are in charge of cleaning the bus and even performing minor bus repairs. “It helps keep our costs low to have our own bus. The most students have had to pay is $825 per person, which covers 11 nights of rooms, about half their meals, Grand Ole Opry tickets and more,” Van Leuven says. “About every three hours, we have a stop of some sort. We always make time for historical stops and farm tours on the way, and I let the kids prioritize what tours they want to do.”
At each hotel stop, chapter officers are in charge of checking everyone in and distributing hotel room keys. This year, eighth grader Laia Osenga helped make hotel reservations for the trip.
“I felt a little awkward calling hotels because I don’t talk on the phone easily,” Osenga says. “I called five hotels and most of them were pretty nice and understanding, so that made it easier. Our teacher gave us a paper with ideas about what to say, and we had to fill it out as we were calling. We also had questions to ask, like if the hotel would comp a room for our bus drivers.”
Osenga looks forward to the opportunity to go on the trip as a freshman in 2024.
“Many of the FFA members haven’t been far from home before, and we travel to visit farmers in other climates and see production we don’t normally see,” Van Leuven says.
For example, they routinely visit a cranberry farm in Wisconsin. They once visited a robotic dairy that had recently been hit by a tornado.
“Visiting with ag producers across the country helps our students be better advocates for agriculture,” Van Leuven says. “Some farmers and ranchers even insist on feeding us and make us a bunch of barbecue. We always have good times and meet great people.”
