During our most recent seminar to Southside Virginia three themes seemed to resonate with me. Those were revitalization, faith, and passion.
Revitalization was evident from the moment we checked into The Bee Hotel in Danville. This boutique hotel was once the home of the Danville Register & Bee newspaper and has been amazingly restored. I look forward to returning someday soon! Speaking of beautifully restored building – several of the buildings in the Danville River District have been revitalized from former mills to restaurants and retail shops. Revitalization also surfaced during our visit to the Institute of Advanced Learning and Research. The institute prides itself as a regional driver in economic transformation. There is a lot of work with the Navy taking place here as well as Controlled Environment Agriculture and endophyte research. Transforming an area once thriving in tobacco and textile seems difficult. But, it was refreshing to see some of the hard work and successes!
Our seminar continued with visits to Locust Level Farms, Gregory Family Farms and Briar View Farms. During each of these visits I noticed the passion and faith that each of these families possessed. Their faith and energy was infectious. I believe that each of these are successful because of their faith and passion. Each shared with is stories of successes and failures. They openly and honestly spoke of their faith and passion for agriculture. I believe these are all traits most of us in agriculture possess. But, they seemed more prevalent during these visits. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about each of their farms and I hope to return someday to learn more!
As always, I learn more about myself during each of these seminars. As I reflect back I think I learned to be more open to change, to try new things and it’s OK if things don’t go the way you planned. Often these are the things that make us grow and make us stronger! I plan to use this in both my personal and professional lives going forward.
I’m looking forward to our next seminar – our international trip to Kenya!
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