Students Meg Edler, Shelton Hatch, Maddison Wild, Joseph Pepe, Jed Peterson, and John Edler from Gladbrook-Reinbeck FFA made the trip to Ames, Iowa, for the 86th Iowa FFA Leadership Conference. Arriving April 27, Sunday afternoon, students helped package Meals from the Heartland, resulting in over 250,000 rice-soy meals. The next day Gladbrook-Reinbeck students toured Kemin in Des Moines, Iowa. After the tour, the students viewed Iowa FFA Idol and opened the First General Session with over 5,000 members from 201 chapters attending. National FFA Advisor, Dr. Steve Brown, gave the welcome. The session also featured speeches by state officers, Dylan Brockshus and Josh Earll. Tuesday started off with the second general session featuring retiring addresses by Lauren Weirup and James Leonard. During the third general session Abrah Meyer, Logan Kelly and Trey Forsyth gave their retiring speeches. Iowa State basketball coaches Fred Hoiberg and Bill Fennelly were featured as keynote speakers. The Iowa FFA band and chorus performed at the fourth general session, the concluding session. Tony Moellers and Brad Pickhinke presented their retiring speeches before the announcement and installation of 2014-2015 State Officer Team.