FORT LORAMIE – Guests enjoyed good food and conversation and received helpful advice from the speakers at the seventh annual Growing Women in Agriculture Empowerment Celebration on Sept. 15 at St. Michael’s Hall in Fort Loramie.
Commissioner Julie Ehemann opened the event and informed the guests that a portion of the entry fee will be used for the Women in Agriculture scholarship fund. Ehemann said in the past, the money has been donated to organizations that help women in distress, like the Family Resource Center and the women’s shelter.
“It’s not just your typical high school student scholarship program,” Ehemann said. “We’ve seen women in circumstances where they may have several children, maybe the marriage hasn’t worked out, maybe for whatever reason they need a career change, and so they’re trying to go back to school, and that’s kind of what we want to focus on.”
The keynote speaker of the night was Chasitie Euler, the BASF district manager of Ohio and Michigan. She held previous sales and marketing leadership roles at Monsanto and Corteva Pioneer, and she has a bachelor’s in agricultural business operations from Wilmington College and a master’s in business administration from Bowling Green State University. Her presentation included tips on how to improve the work-life balance and keeping priorities in line with anecdotes from her own experiences.
“We don’t get burned out because of what we do, we get burned out because we forget why we do it. We have to remember our why and our purpose,” Euler said to about 80 women in attendance. “We all have our days, but embrace the tough times, and work through those tough times because there’s so many victories ahead.”
She also encouraged guests to not get worked up over things they can’t control, to stay focused on day-to-day tasks instead of doing everything at one time, and to be unafraid of saying no.
“Whenever someone asks me to go do something, I look at what’s most important and what’s my purpose and what’s my passion. If it doesn’t line up, I gotta say no,” Euler said.
After Euler, attorney Evin Bachelor with Wright & Moore Law Co. LPA walked guests through the details of estate, succession and business plans for farming families.
Julie Casiano, owner of Smoothie Life, Meal Prep Life and Whole Heart Kitchen in Sidney, closed out the night by sharing her story and tips on meal prepping. She also gave out gift bags with more information about her businesses, her favorite food and dressing recipes and a spice bag for guests to make homemade Italian dressing.
Casiano’s daughter, Giavanna, was born with a heart defect and Down syndrome and was Casiano’s motivation to be an entrepreneur so she could be home more. Her businesses give back to the community in many ways, and one of which is hiring employees with Down syndrome. She hired her first employee with Down syndrome three years ago, and she now has eight employees with Down syndrome.
“The complete change in my life is what inspired me to do something that would allow me to stay home with her (Giavanna) and to give her a mom that had a more flexible schedule,” Casiano said. “You could say I was a mom with a mission when I started this business years ago.”
The Meal Prep Life started with a Facebook post asking if anyone would want her to cook for them and has blossomed into a business that requires a commercial kitchen to serve customers each week.
“There’s really no good time to take that leap, to figure out what your purpose and your passion might be,” Casiano said. “Whatever it might be that’s holding you back, I just encourage you guys to take that leap because you never know what is gonna come from it and one day you can be sharing your purpose and your passion with others as well.”
