Rotary hears from new Ohio FFA Camp Muskingum director

The Carrollton Rotary Club heard from guest speaker Jeremy Grove at its noon meeting Tuesday, Jan. 7. Grove is the recently appointed director of Ohio FFA Camp Muskingum. He shared information about his background, the history and mission of the camp, and his vision for its future.

Grove has been involved in agricultural education since high school in Logan, where he was an FFA member and held leadership positions. After college, he returned to Logan High School to teach agricultural education. He was later recruited to Cleveland to teach at East Technical High School, where he developed the agricultural education program and became its director and administrator. He later completed administrative work for a Christian school and said those roles prepared him for his new position.

Ohio FFA Camp Muskingum is a residential camp on Leesville Lake in Carroll County. It is owned and operated by Ohio FFA Camps Inc., a nonprofit organization. The camp serves more than 11,000 individuals a year.

In addition to weekly residential summer camps for high school students in FFA programs, the camp also offers daytime activities, including Nature’s Classroom classes. A primary function of the camp is to promote soil and water conservation and provide agricultural and other farming education.

Facilities include a high ropes course and rock-climbing tower, along with canoeing, kayaking and swimming.

Grove said he hopes to continue expanding the camp’s ability to bring agricultural education to the community and across the state, and possibly into neighboring states. He also spoke about advancing the concept of “adult recess” and further developing community service through camp programs.

In other business, club President Matt Campbell reminded members of their commitment to operate the Loaves and Fishes food distribution next Monday evening from 6 to 7:30 p.m., and the Valentine’s Pizza Party and Dance in February for Carroll Hills School.