CROTHERSVILLE — The Crothersville FFA chapter kept a secret bottled up ahead of the 35th annual Toy and Food Drive.
A post was made on the chapter’s Facebook page stating a secret would be revealed at the start of delivery day Saturday morning.
After Adviser Linda Myers spoke, she turned it over to President Brayden Crater to share logistics before the officers made the big reveal.
They wheeled out a cart, let off confetti cannons and took a sheet off of the cart. On top were bottles of the chapter’s famous pork burger secret sauce with accompanying recipe cards.
“We’ve waited 35 years. Today, you get the recipe to the secret sauce,” Myers said, drawing a round of applause as volunteers helping with delivery day were told they would each receive a bottle.
Crater, a senior at Crothersville High School, said he has known the recipe for about a year.
“I was mad it was going to get away from me because I was one of the few people that did,” he said, smiling.
Then he was asked about another type of secret sauce: Pulling off the annual Toy and Food Drive, which this year served 110 families in Vernon Township.
“Community,” he quickly responded. “Members are always here. Alumni, we’ve always got at least 10, 12 come back for that. Parents. I’m glad everybody’s here.”
While chapter members think about the Toy and Food Drive year-round, Crater said the final month kicks into high gear.
Since the drive has been happening for 35 years, he said it’s down to a system, but there are challenges each year.
“This year especially with a new (school) administration, we had to get them accustomed to what we do,” Crater said. “We didn’t have school on Friday. Usually, we’re here that day. We were here from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. We basically split up and had people doing cans, making bags with toiletries. We wrapped toys Monday and Tuesday.”
Guardian Bikes of Seymour donated 82 bicycles, so Myers had a couple of her classes assemble them. That added to the work to be ready for delivery day.
“We’ve got a lot of it figured out since it has been 35 years, but even with that, there’s something new every year we have to figure out,” Crater said. “A lot of stuff, like these bikes, we have to make sure there’s enough for each family.”
Plus, it was more challenging for the officers to get together during the school day to organize the Toy and Food Drive.
“This year, class meetings didn’t work the same, and it was hard to get everybody in order and together. We had a lot of alumni come back this year,” Crater said. “Every year, we have to adjust to something, but we get it done every year.”
On delivery day, the secret sauce — the community — comes together to make it happen.
“For me, it shows how much people care a lot,” Crater said. “Today, it’s hard to find. You think no one does until today. It’s all here. It’s good to see how many people come back every year.”
Myers also took note of that during her talk Saturday.
“The number of people here is super heartwarming,” she said. “I appreciate you being here.”
She then reflected on the start of the drive 35 years ago.
“This is my 36th year teaching,” she said. “After being here for a year and a half, there was another organization in the school that was collecting toys, and they were not getting very many toys in, and they were like, ‘I wish we could quit this. We don’t want to do this anymore.’ That was the first of December, and I said, ‘FFA will do it.’ I was new. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
If FFA was involved, she said they also were going to collect food.
“We started little drives and collected food from different classrooms, just like we still do now,” she said. “I was part of Brownstown Christmas Cheer when I was in high school, and my dad (Bob Myers) started Brownstown Christmas Cheer, so I kind of took some of the things that I learned from that, and we incorporated it here.”
Louis Bolton was there at the start and said the first year only involved chapter members and advisory board members delivering.
After an incident that year, Myers focused on finding a recognizable source to help with delivery for the next year.
“I was new to town. I went to the fire department ‘Can you guys help me?’ and they had big trucks, so a recognizable source in the community was the fire department,” she said, referring to the Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department. “We really appreciate they’ve been doing this for 34 years. The fire department has been an integral part of this, especially with the delivery.”
After seven years, Myers said Becky Sawyer and some other people were sitting around a table in her home and she told them FFA was receiving more names of people needing help than donations.
“I looked at Becky and I said, ‘We’re either going to do something to make money or we’re going to quit this,’” Myers said.
Someone at the table said, “Let’s have a craft show.” In November, the 28th annual Crothersville FFA craft show was conducted at the school.
“This year at the craft show, these kids raised $7,600,” Myers said, drawing a round of applause. “A lot of that is just leadership, talking on the telephone, learning how to organize, going to businesses asking for donations and then frying 800 pork burgers in four hours. Some of those things aren’t easy. We’ve never done it an easy way, but everything that it seems like we do gets bigger and bigger.”
In 2020, the chapter set a record with more than 20 tons of food delivered. After that, the officers decided to focus on quality rather than quantity.
“To this day, we’re still working on that,” Myers said.
She said the only number people needed to know Saturday was 110.
“One hundred ten families will be impacted today because of the results of these FFA members and all of this community,” she said.
Bolton said it’s great to see the number of people who contribute each year. While he doesn’t help deliver anymore because there’s now plenty of help, he still showed up Saturday to take it all in.
“It’s great. I love it, helping the community,” he said, noting it’s special to him to help FFA because he was born and raised a farmer.
Part of the annual drive is named after Bolton. When he delivered, he initially went by himself because he was taking toys and food to homes of Crothersville students. Over time, though, other adults joined him, and they became known as Louis Deliveries.
“Then whenever my daughter (Amy Shirley) graduated, she wanted to go and see what it was,” Bolton said, as his daughter previously was an FFA member. “I’ve taken state officers on it, I’ve taken a lot of graduates when it first started. Now, I kind of got out of it. It’s gotten so big.”
Next year, Crater will be an alumnus of the chapter. He plans to be part of the secret sauce — the community — helping with the Toy and Food Drive.
“Oh yeah. I’ll be here,” he said, smiling.