In last week’s Friday Footnote we learned about an FFA Safety campaign in Minnesota that focused on a kernel of corn. This week we will learn how Minnesota FFA members collected thousands and thousands of ears of corn to support a worthy cause.
We have three guest columnists for the Footnote – Clark Hanson, Neil Pierce and Jim Beach. We will formally introduce them at the end of the Footnote. But now let’s get to the contents of this Footnote.
A Double Whammy of Bad Luck
Figure 1. The Minnesota Double Whammy. Top – The Albert Lea Tribune, August 14, 1946. Bottom – Austin (MN) Daily Herald, July 17, 1953
About 75 years ago Minnesota experienced a double whammy of bad luck. Infantile Paralysis, also known as Polio, was on a rampage in the 1940’s and 1950’s. It was all too real in the upper Midwest States, including Minnesota (See the Friday Footnote for 5/1/2020 to learn more about the impact of polio on agricultural education).
In 1946, the Minnesota Department of Health Board cancelled the Minnesota State Fair. That made two years without a State Fair! The 1945 State Fair had been cancelled due to restrictions associated with WWII. In June of 1949 most of the polio cases were located in the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas and a few cases in Freeborn and Fillmore Counties. The Board of Health also considered closing County Fairs in 1950.
In the fall of 1953, the farming community of Freeborn, Minnesota was hit by a wind storm that caused a lot of damage to buildings and crops. Excessive corn loss due to ear droppage was particularly high around Freeborn. The damage could have been exasperated by the European Corn Borer insect damage to corn stocks. A secondary “hatch” results in borer larva attacking the shank which connects the corn ear to the corn stalk. Borer activity combined with high wind velocity more than likely contributed to the corn stalk and corn ear shank becoming weak and increasing the potential for wind damage.
Mr. Lee Asche, Vocational Agriculture Instructor and FFA Advisor, at Freeborn High School was mindful of both the polio epidemic and perfectly good ears of corn on the ground. Mr. Asche decided to put the two together. Teams of FFA members were dispatched to glean cornfields. In the town of Freeborn, a temporary corn crib was constructed, and each farmer was asked to contribute a bushel of corn. “Bring a bushel or buy a bushel” was the chapter slogan for the first corn drive. Ninety dollars was raised and helped a student disabled by polio attend Camp Courage.
However, our story does not stop here. The Freeborn FFA continued to collect downed corn and solicit funds to support Camp Courage. See Figure 2. In 1955 the Freeborn corn drive raised $535.36. One must remember Freeborn was a rather small rural high school.
As the Freeborn FFA Chapter’s annual corn drive grew in scope, FFA members drove pick-ups which were stationed at the beginning and end of each school bus route. The members would follow the routes till they met in the middle. In the early years, the corn collected consisted of ear corn. Pick-up loads of ear corn were driven to a central site, where the corn was shelled, delivered and later sold to the local elevator always at top price, regardless of moisture content. Vocational Agriculture students who lived in town were sent to solicit funds door – to – door.
Figure 2. Article from The Albert Lea Tribune, October 18, 1955
Soon other FFA chapters in the state joined in. During the 1954-1955 school year, Waino J. (Kort) Kortesmaki, Minnesota FFA Executive Secretary, linked the “Corn Drive for Camp Courage” effort to the last line of the FFA Motto “Living to Serve” and promoted such an activity for all Minnesota FFA Chapters.
In areas where corn was not a major crop, chapters gathered grain for Camp Courage. Some chapters cut pulpwood, sold scrap metal, sold fruit, collected pine cones, sponsored movies, held slave auctions, sold candy, sponsored concerts, or held pancake suppers.
Figure 3. In 1958 Clark Hanson (one of the authors of this Footnote) presented a check to the Minnesota Society for Crippled Children and Adults to support Camp Courage. At this point in time the Freeborn FFA had raised $2,200 for Camp Courage. From The Albert Lea Tribune, December 2, 1958.
So What is Camp Courage?
The Minnesota Society for Crippled Children and Adults, originated in 1928, with the expressed purpose of meeting the needs of individuals with disabilities. In the early years there were numerous activities designed for the disabled and the group met in various locations. The organization acquired a camp in 1955 known as Camp Courage which later became the name of the organization.
According to a Camp Courage brochure (see Figure 4):
Camp Courage is where crippled kids and older handicapped folks go to be outdoors, have fun, and make friends. Here they can swim and fish, have cookouts, set up a tent on an island and sleep in it. Counselors with strength and patience help them to do things for themselves. And they love it.
Figure 4. Two pages from the Camp Courage Corn Drive brochure. At the time this brochure was published over $145,000 had been raised for Camp Courage by the Minnesota FFA. By 1979 that number exceeded a million dollars. The funds to build a $90,000 Speech Therapy Building was raised by the FFA. The FFA also constructed a greenhouse as a sheltered workshop site for individuals with special needs. Image courtesy of MN FFA Association, Paul Fixen, former state officer.
Later Camp Courage merged with Camp Friendship, also an organization providing services to individuals with disabilities. Then, in 1986 a new organization – Friendship Ventures emerged. In 2013, a branding strategy firm researched and launched a new name for the organization which is now known as True Friends. Today True Friends offers six programs across four locations, serving individuals of all abilities.
The True Friends website states:
True Friends is a nonprofit organization providing life-changing experiences that enhance independence and self-esteem for children and adults with disabilities. Our programs include camp, respite, retreats, team building, therapy and adaptive riding, and travel; serving over 25,000 individuals annually. With locations near Maple Lake, Annandale, Eden Prairie and Bemidji, we serve individuals in Minnesota and throughout the United States. Camp Courage is located near Maple Lake.
Freeborn High School Closes – What Now?
What happened to the Freeborn FFA Corn Drive for Camp Courage when the High School closed in 1987? An “All-School Reunion” was held with the Freeborn School District celebrating the history of the school. At an afternoon program, one of the speakers focused on making a point that the Freeborn Community need not “die” due to the closing of the school. The speaker, coauthor Hanson, suggested that the Antique Car Show and Antique Tractor Show featured at the celebration become annual events. The shows continue to be held to this day and are known as the ”Car/Tractor Roll In.”
The speaker also suggested that the Annual FFA Corn Drive for Camp Courage be replaced with a golf tournament to raise funds for Camp Courage. For a number of years following the closing of the school, the Freeborn area high school students attended Alden Conger High School. Later, the Freeborn School District merged with United South Central. Both FFA Chapters continued the “Corn Drive” legacy. In 2001, a chance discussion between co-authors Jim Beach and Neil Pierce generated a golf tournament identified as “Tee It Up For Campers.”
For twenty-five years Oak View Golf Course, located midway between Freeborn (pop. 300) and Alden (pop.600), has hosted the annual golf tournament. The golf course was designed and developed on an old farmstead owned by the Anderson brothers. The machine shed from the farmstead continues to serve as the golf course equipment maintenance shop. The former farmstead encompasses a grove of oak trees. Tee boxes, fairways and roughs are lined with magnificent huge mature oak trees. On fairways 2, 4, 6, the mighty solid tree trunks can send a ricocheted golf ball to corn and soybean fields to be buried deep in preparing next season’s seed bed. Fairways number 4 and 9 feature water hazards which function as baseball outfielders snatching fly balls and conducting a swift burial at sea. Fairways 6 and 7 display steep rough slopes enabling the Freeborn Lake slough to trap golf balls in an area one should not trudge. Fairways 7 and 8 feature roughs where golf balls are sent to the “woods” to be eternally buried, resting in peace among fallen leaves and small branches. A “problem oak” was located on the NW edge of the 8th green. For years, this tree tormented generations of golfers as it protected half of the green from a golf ball direct hit. The only solution was a right-handed golfer’s “slice”. The huge oak finally gave up as a result of disease and not to the scorn of golfers. Oak View Golf Course is a community asset to enable such a transition in fundraising.
Tournament teams consist of a four-person best shot, shot-gun start format. The teams represent Freeborn, Alden and other local communities. Teams, with participants seeking a day of adventure, are also organized by former area residents, some as far away as the Twin Cities. The winnings are not great, but the cause is greater. Fourteen under par will place a team in contention for winning.
Sources of income include $65/golfer registrations, one hundred plus golf hole sponsorships, silent auction items, putting and chipping skills games, donated meat boxes raffled at a local bar the following day and other generous donations.
The question that needs to be answered is, “How is the Tee It Up for Campers Golf Tournament doing?” At the conclusion of the July 12, 2025 tournament, the dollars contributed for over 25 years total $523,665. A big thank you to all for your efforts and contributions.
Figure 5. Check Presentation 2025. Image courtesy of True Friends.
Concluding Remarks
In a press release, September 12, 2023, John LeBlanc, President & CEO of True Friends, stated “The funds received through the FFA Corn Drive have been critical to our operations and to the campers for these past 70 years, and the fact that we’ve had over 50 FFA chapters year over year over year collecting corn and sending it to the kids at camp, has been really a backbone of this organization.” LeBlanc added that in addition to funds raised, the outreach efforts from FFA members have supported True Friends in other important ways as well. “They have now engaged so many other people in our mission, to the point now where we have community members and family members waiting for FFA members to come out and ask for corn and collect corn – and that’s pretty phenomenal.”
Figure 6. Generations of Giving, Koziolek Family (Carolyn, Goodhue FFA, Minn. State Reporter 82-83; Nicole, Randolph FFA, Minn. State Sec. 21-22; Steve, Wells-Easton merged United South Central FFA, Minn. State Pres. 82-83). Image courtesy of True Friends. https://truefriends.org/ffa-family.
The annual Minnesota FFA Chapters Corn Drive for Camp Courage continues to this day. For the 2024-2025 school year Minnesota FFA Chapters raised $202,507.90. The grand total for the last 73 years exceeds $7.3 million from the Corn Drive and other related events. Both United South Central and the Alden-Conger FFA Chapters participated this past year with the Alden-Conger FFA Chapter ranked 5th with funds raised by an individual FFA Chapter.
“Tee It Up For Campers” truly exemplifies the FFA Motto – Learning to Do, Doing to Learning. Earning to Live. Living to Serve
Meet the Authors
Jim Beach, Retired Manager, Oak View Golf Course, Freeborn, MN. One of his grade school friends had polio.
Neil Pierce, Retired Athletic Director, Alden-Conger Public Schools, Alden. MN. Neil is a polio survivor.
Clark Hanson, Retired, Agricultural Educator, So. Dak. State University, Brookings, SD. Ronald Head was a polio victim and lived on the farm north of the Hanson farm.