Sonya Zimmerman experiences the feel of driving a large farm tractor during the Leadership Ottawa County Class tour of the Toussaint River Angus Farm.

The Leadership Ottawa County Class of 2020 met for its second session of the year recently, touring the Earl Johnson Agricultural Center in Oak Harbor. Topics of the day included personality assessment, stress reduction, wildlife conservation, agricultural awareness and successful thinking.

Alison Lanza Falls began the tour by discussing the importance of understanding personality types with an emphasis of knowing and applying key stress reduction techniques, strengths and mode of operation. Falls explained the four-step process of reducing stress and incorporating a controlled reaction in personal and business settings.

Falls engaged the class in a breathing exercise which can be implemented any time or place to reduce stress with a calming effect.

The class is reading the book, How Successful People Think, by John C. Maxwell. At each class they will be discussing a portion of the book. Maxwell writes that if you change your thinking, then you can change your life and outlines a six-step process of “How to be a Better Thinker.” The author noted that you should “give yourself permission to expand your world.”

The class also toured Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge to learn about native waterfowl, migratory birds and the monarch butterfly migration. Naturalists discussed the development and sequential land acquisitions of the refuge, which includes 10,000 acres along the Lake Erie shoreline. The ONWR is a prime location to view bald eagles and their nests.

The class concluded with a tour of Moore Orchard in Oak Harbor, where Jim Moore, a pomologist, explained apple production, harvest and the orchard business. John Moore, owner of Toussaint River Angus Farm, narrated a wagon hayride through the orchards, farm fields and woods while painting a picture of farm life in 2019. The tour ended by visiting the Angus barn and received the long-awaited answer to “Where’s the beef?”