FAYETTEVILLE, Ohio — The Fayetteville FFA officers took a trip to the Cincinnati Center for Autism Oct. 6, to hold an Agricultural Day with the students and staff.
Officers brought a rabbit, Pygmy goat, Boer goat and a chicken to show the students and have for a petting zoo. The officers also had informational boards about the life cycles of pumpkins, gourds and corn.
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VINCENT, Ohio — On Sept. 24-27, many Warren FFA members were involved in the annual Barlow Independent Fair. The chapter still hosted the Taco Stand.
The Taco Stand is a fundraiser for the Warren FFA every year. Each member worked a three-hour shift serving drinks and tacos in a bag. Members also exhibited fruits and vegetables in the Lads and Lassie building to show off the hard work from their SAE projects from over the summer.
Animal projects that members took included dairy, goat and rabbit breeding projects, along with market feeder calves, dairy goats and ducks.
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UTICA, Ohio — The Utica FFA officer team participated in the annual Ohio Legislative Leadership Conference in the form of a Zoom meeting Sept. 30. Normally held at the Ohio State House, the event took place as a webinar due to the pandemic.
The meeting started with a 40-minute discussion of agricultural issues with Tony Seegers, director of state policy; Ty Higgins, director of media relations; and Jenna Beadle, director of state policy, all from the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. Following, congressman Troy Balderson and state Sen. Bob Peterson spoke about what FFA means to them.
The meeting continued with participants breaking out into smaller groups. In these smaller workshops, FFA members played Pictionary, learned about advocacy and lobbying and shared their personal FFA stories.
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MILLERSBURG, Ohio — West Holmes FFA members attended a community service event at Harvest Ridge in the expo center Oct. 1 to carve pumpkins for the second annual Harvest Glow event that is held at the fairgrounds. Members carved from 3-7 p.m. and were thanked with a meal by Exclusively Yours Catering. They were joined by the Triway and Smithville FFA chapters. Members competed in games including an obstacle course, tug of war, sack race, pumpkin bowling, egg toss, pie eating, milk the cow and bale toss.
The Smithville members were named the winners and received the rotating trophy and $300.
The chapter had its annual meeting at West Holmes High School Sept. 28. Members approved T-shirt and sweatshirt designs, planned the October meeting, decided to hold the annual fruit sale through Nov. 16 and decided what to include in fruit cases, planned the Greenhand Initiation and Chapter Degree Ceremony for Nov. 2, planned the Greenhand Lock-In for Nov. 7 and decided to purchase extra access for $150 at the third tier for the national convention.
After the meeting, they had pizza and drinks, and the officer team set up and played leadership games.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — During the week of the 2020 Wayne County Fair, members of the Northwestern FFA Chapter participated in the recycling program. Members went around each night at closing time and collected recycling items around the fairgrounds.
Ellie Hanshaw, Anthony Welch, Craig Wellert, Kaleb Badger, Grant Bond, Kade Tegtmeier, Jacoby Gilbert, Caydence Scale, Brooke Stinemetz, Kara Mckay, Kirsten Boreman, Lily Boreman, Mary Wellert, Haley Cadwell, Jadeyn Berry, Cole Wharton and Ethan Schwarts helped throughout the week.
Alumni members Austin Beegle, Brock Tegtmeier, Becca Harbaugh and Sydney Harmon also helped.
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WEST SALEM, Ohio — This year, nine members of the 2020 graduating class of the Northwestern-Wayne FFA Chapter have earned the Ohio Agribusiness Association-Agribusiness and Production Systems Certifications. With this recognition, these students have been verified to have expertise in the areas of agriculture, agribusiness and production systems.
These members were Brock Tegtmeier, Maddy Cherry, Austin Beegle, Alex Borton, Dyan Martin, Mackenzie Nowell, Kaitlyn Praisler, Abby Ramseyer and Kenny Strait. This certification is an industry-recognized agribusiness credential, that provides verification of high school experiences in areas of agricultural expertise.
All students who received this certification were enrolled in a career-technical agricultural program, and have completed four years of an agricultural course offered at Northwestern High School, along with the agribusiness capstone class. These students’ SAEs fall under the category of either entrepreneurship, placement or research-driven project, and must also pertain to the agricultural industry.
A total of 11 members were recognized for their accomplishments and hard work on the state level. This year, Riley Stull, Lizzy Howman, Borton, Val Imhoff, Praisler, Desiree Smith and Craig Wellert all received high levels of recognition from the State FFA organization.
The treasurer, secretary and reporters’ books also received a gold-rating from the Ohio FFA Association. Ramseyer and Borton worked on the treasurer book, Howman and Imhoff worked on the secretary book and Jordan Melegari and Avery Garver worked on the reporters’ book.
The chapter picked grapes at Lincoln Way Vineyard and Winery Sept. 26. Members picked grapes put them into bins to be shipped to the winery for processing. The chapter picked over 6,000 pounds of grapes.
