The Mulhall-Orlando FFA Chapter was represented at the 48th Annual Oklahoma FFA Alumni Leadership Camp at the Tulakogee Conference Center on Ft. Gibson Lake near Wagoner, Okla. KayLea Taylor and Hanna Schmidt went the first session June 27th to June 30th. Callen Oldenburg, Baylee Brown and Casyn Larman attended the final session July 7th to July 10th. They were joined by more than 1600 FFA members from over 300 Oklahoma FFA chapters who participated in one of the four sessions.
In 1973, the first Oklahoma FFA Alumni Camp was held at Red Rock Canyon State Park with 33 students attending. Since that first camp the annual summer camp has been a right of passage for FFA members from across the state. Starting in 1980 the camp was moved to Camp Tulakogee on the shores of Ft. Gibson Lake near Wagoner, OK. As the camp has grown, it has been broken into different sessions to accommodate all the campers that want to attend. While attending the camp, students are assigned to cabins and small groups that purposely mix the campers to encourage them to meet new friends. The camp also engages FFA members in fun-filled, action packed activities that focus on personal, team and service leadership.
This year’s activities included a ropes course that challenged the members of the small groups to work together to complete, water Olympics and a dodgeball tournament. On the final night of each session, hypnotist Dr. Alan Snyder of Wisconsin selected volunteers and hypnotized them on stage to the delight of all the campers. His performance during the fourth session was his 100th performance for Oklahoma FFA members at Alumni Camp. This year’s kick-off speaker was Bill Cordes of Missouri, and the keynote speaker was Dustin Galyon of Kansas.
All the M-O Officers who attended agreed that it was an amazing experience. Tulakogee means “a gathering place for life” and it has fulfilled that purpose time and again for generations of Oklahoma FFA members.