President's Message

May 2019

For those of you who don’t know, every year your Madera County Farm Bureau awards approximately $40,000 in scholarship money to Madera County High School students pursuing a career agriculture.  Recently, we held our annual fundraising event (Cinco de Vino), to which was a huge success thanks to our membership, staff, in-kind donations, event vendors and others in attendance.  We host this event for the sole purpose of raising money for our up-and-coming agricultural leaders. These scholarship recipients were interviewed by Farm Bureau Directors and given every chance to share why they should be the chosen ones.  We are reminded every time, after these interviews, agriculture is in a safe place if we can get these students to influential positions in our industries.  They have integrity, drive, passion, motivation, interest and ethics required to stand up for what is fair and reasonable.  Some of you reading this are a past recipient of the Madera County Farm Bureau Scholarship or are closely related to a past recipient.  I personally fall in the category of being closely related to a past recipient.  My twin brother Brian received this scholarship almost two decades ago, I still congratulate him for that.  On the other hand, in my scholarship interview two decades ago, I, well, let’s just say the Directors felt I had room for improvement.  To which they were correct.  Lastly, on behalf of Madera County Farm Bureau, we thank you for your membership and continued support.  We are here for you!