INDIANAPOLIS — FFA members from five states and the National FFA Alumni Association finished a food drive to fight the problem of hunger.
Sponsored by Tractor Supply Company with help from Carhartt, “Harvest for America” launched in September and concluded Feb. 25 — the end of National FFA Week. Along the way, FFA members gathered a total of 930,458 pounds of food for local food banks.
Ohio’s role. In Ohio alone, FFA members totaled 93,709 pounds of donated food. The Evergreen FFA Chapter (Metamora, Ohio) took the top spot in the state rankings after accumulating 21,289 pounds of food in the campaign, with the Felicity-Franklin FFA Chapter (Felicity, Ohio) and the Upper Sandusky FFA Chapter (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) also provide big contributions.
Each participating FFA chapter was provided with donation bins, promotional materials and space for bins inside each participating Tractor Supply store.
Big food drive. The series of food drives in the participating states was conducted over a six-month period. During that time, each participating FFA chapter organized three individual food drive events. Additionally, the chapters helped organize one food drive in conjunction with an existing local event or develop one independent event during that time.
Incentives. FFA chapters from each participating state were provided incentives to encourage healthy competition. The top chapter in each of the participating states received a scholarship for the student leadership opportunity, the Washington Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., a $100 FFA Unlimited Gift Card, $2,000 worth of apparel from Carhartt and a $500 Tractor Supply gift card.
Each state will also receive an Alumni scholarship for the Alumni State Leaders Conference. The top three chapters overall will receive a $1,000 voucher for costs related to attending the National FFA Convention.
SMITHVILLE, Ohio — The Smithville FFA Chapter sent two members to participate in the District 3 public speaking contest March 2.
Wayne Stoller, a senior in agricultural business, competed in the speaking contest. Ellie Kauffman, a freshman in animal science, competed in the FFA Creed speaking contest. She placed second and will compete in the state contest held March 19.
ALBANY, Ohio — The Alexander FFA Chapter competed at the Wilmington Invitational for Livestock and Horse Judging. The team will be competing at the state Livestock and Horse Judging, April 2.
ASHLAND, Ohio — The Mapleton FFA chapter recently had member Kyrsten Kopchak participate in a public speaking contest. For the contest, she had to recite the FFA Creed. She received a silver rating.
Stacy Watts, a senior, participated in the OSU Buckeye meat judging competition, where she placed third out of 83 people. She received a $250 scholarship.
The Mapleton FFA Chapter’s tractor trouble shooting team participated in the District 2 AG Industrial Diagnostics Career Development Event.
The team of Garrett Boley, Herman Haupricht and Freddie Swanson placed fifth.
The chapter’s Equine and General Livestock teams traveled to Wilmington, Feb. 23, to compete in the Career Development Event.
The equine team placed 31st. Participants were Kyle Zimmerman, Paige Reisinger and Audra Blue.
The General Livestock team placed 28th. Participants were Adam Heffelfinger, who placed 30th individually; Herman Haupricht; and Kaitlyn Close.
SMITHVILLE, Ohio — Wayne County Schools Career Center Ag Mechanics/Power Technologies students placed first at the FFA District 3 Ag & Industrial Diagnostics contest at Ashtabula County Joint Vocational School Feb. 17.
The team of Jeremy Steiner of Heritage Private and David Hayhurst of Triway competed against students from Ashtabula, Mahoning County Career & Technical Center in Canfield, Trumbull Career & Technical Center in Warren, and Marlington High School in Alliance.
The Wayne County team earned 254 points out of a possible 300. The Ashtabula team placed second.
Steiner and Hayhurst advance to the state contest March 10-11 at the University of Northwestern Lima.
JEROMESVILLE, Ohio — The Hillsdale FFA chapter had members compete Feb. 23 at the District 2 ag sales and job interview contest. Ashlee Cutlip, Kelsey Eberly, Madison Hays and Miranda Tanner competed in the job interview contest. In Division I Miranda Tanner placed first; Ashlee Cutlip placed first in Division II; in Division III Madison Hays placed first; and Kelsey Eberly placed first in Division IV.
The ag sales team competed in the ag sales career development event. The team placed first at the district contest. Individually placing were Seth Ebert, first; Brittani Baldner-Hill, second; and Morgan Austin, fourth. All participants will compete in the upcoming state competition.
WOOSTER, Ohio — The Trumbull Dairy Judging team placed third at the ATI-OSU Dairy Judging invitational held Feb. 26 in Wooster. Five members placed in the top 33 percent of participants. Their next event will the Spring Dairy Expo In Columbus April 2.
WEST SALEM, Ohio — Northwestern FFA’s job interview and agricultural sales teams traveled to Hillsdale High School Feb. 23 to participate in the District 3 competition. Members on this year’s ag sales team were Chris Thomas, Ashley Cromer, Marla Walton and Katryna Ousley.
Thomas placed first individually, Ousley placed third and Cromer placed fourth. The team placed first overall and will advance to state competition, which takes place March 5.
This year’s job interview team consisted of freshman Chase Thut, sophomore John Eberly, junior Sabrina Johnson and senior Olivia Stover. Thut, Johnson and Stover all placed first in their divisions and will also be advancing to state competition March 5. Eberly placed second in his division.
