Editing Freeborn, Minnesota (section)

== FFA Corn Drive ==
FFA Corn Drives for [[Camp Courage]] first began in 1964, originating that year with the Freeborn High School Chapter of the Future Farmers of America, or FFA.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://truefriends.org/ffa/|title=True Friends – Supporter's Spotlight: FFA|website=truefriends.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-11-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201035350/https://truefriends.org/ffa/|archive-date=2017-12-01|url-status=dead}}</ref> During the initial Corn Drive that year, members of the Freeborn FFA chapter walked acres of newly-harvested fields of area farmers, picking up ears of corn left behind by the machinery. The corn was collected and sold, and the proceeds were given to Camp Courage, a northern Minnesota summer camp for special-needs children. The first Corn Drive raised $87. Freeborn High School teacher and FFA advisor Lee Asche was instrumental in starting this enterprise, and promoting it statewide. In tribute to his generous spirit and charitable endeavors, and in honor of his many years as an educator, Mr. Asche was selected as the honorary Grand Marshal of the Freeborn Area Sesquicentennial in 2007; he was featured as leader of the 92-unit Grand Parade.

As a direct result of the efforts of Lee Asche, dozens of FFA chapters, representing high schools throughout the state of Minnesota, continue to raise money through Corn Drives of their own, largely through donations of corn or cash from their own area farmers. Nearly 60 years after the initial Corn Drive by the Freeborn FFA, funds are still donated to the successor organization of the original Camp Courage, now known statewide as True Friends.