FLORIDA FEDERATION TRAVELS
TO THE STATE CAPITOL!
The Florida Federation of Fairs, through the leadership of the Legislative Committee and Committee Chairman Terry Atchley, made its third trip to Tallahassee to meet with state senators and representatives about the importance of the Fair industry to our state and to our communities.
This is the third year that the Florida Federation has taken a delegation to Tallahassee to meet with our elected officials.This trip has proven to be a great help in getting to know our legislators on a personal basis and to tell our story.
On March 6th & 7th, 13 Florida Federation members representing Fairs from across the state met with many of our elected officials. The group was able to connect with over 20 state offices that day and consider the day a great success.The Federation group included: Terry Atchley, Legislative Committee Chair from the Hardee County Fair; Bill Olson from the Greater Jacksonville Fair; Eddie Cora from the Miami Dade Youth Fair; Dan West from the Manatee County Fair, Clark Converse from the Pasco County Fair; Happy Norris from the Lake County Fair, Paulette Kirkland, Keith Wingate, and Wanda Simmons from the Northeast FL Fair; Ronnie Hull from the Volusia County Fair; Tom Umiker from the Hillsborough County Fair; Monica Welde from Bearadise Ranch; and Lisa Hinton, Federation Executive Director.A special thanks also to Jim Spratt with CAS Governmental Services LLC for helping us set up these appointments.
Our message was an easy one this year as we greeted each legislator with "we don't have any specific issues this year and we aren't asking for money, we are here to share with you how important Fairs are to our local communities and the state of Florida”. Our message was particularly important this year as we shared facts about the role that our Florida Fairs played in the hurricane relief efforts after the recent hurricanes the past 2 years.
We left each elected official with a flyer that documented the facts above.
That evening the Federation participated in the Taste of Florida Ag reception and distributed 200 bags of cotton candy and 200 candy apples donated by Netterfield’s Popcorn and Lemonade as well as bags of caramel corn donated by Pence LLC. Needless to say, our booth was extremely popular!
With Florida’s term limits the number of newly elected officials each year is astounding. We know how important it is to educate our elected officials about Fairs and it's even more important now as there are so many new legislators.
Our third Tallahassee Legislative trip was even more productive than our first two and it has become an annual event.