SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — On Feb. 9, three members of the Northwestern FFA chapter competed in the District Public Speaking contest held at Glen Oak High School.
Taylor Wurst took first place the Advanced Prepared Speech Contest. Her speech topic was “Drug Use in Horses.” Kayla Cutter placed second in the Beginning Prepared Speech Contest. Her speech topic was, “Body Language of a Leader.” Kelsee Smith competed in and placed third in the FFA Creed speaking contest.
To kick off National FFA Week, held Feb. 20-26, the school had spirit days. The theme days were: Tuesday, American day; Wednesday, Groutfit day; Thursday, Animal day; and Friday, Farmer day. Each spirit day was in correlation to our Officer Opening Ceremonies.
During the week members wrote thank you cards to their supporters and made tie blankets to donate to the Pregnancy Care Center in Wooster, Salvation Army and a local veterans home. The chapter also held an assembly on Tuesday for middle school students with fun activities to promote agriculture and FFA.
On Wednesday, the chapter held its inaugural supporter luncheon. Officers sent out invitations to local supporters and invited them to a luncheon held in the Ag Shop. The chapter also hosted their annual teacher breakfast, where the chapter officers serve breakfast to the staff, bored members, and administration to show our appreciation for their hard work and support to our chapter.
To finish off the week, the chapter also celebrated with a school-wide assembly with the high school students with many events. Students from every grade participated in milk chugging, tractor races, pool noodle-jousting, human hungry hungry hippos, plunger races, pie eating contests and kissing a pig.
On March 1, members competed in the District 3 Ag Sales contest held at Northwestern High School. Jadeyn Berry, Dugan McLaughlin, Ava Stoller, Kade Tegtmeier, Taylor Wurst and Mallory Gilbert all participated. The team placed first overall in the district, with Tegtmeier placing first, Stoller third, and McLaughlin fourth individually. The team will be advancing to the state contest held on March 14.
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CRESTON, Ohio — The Norwayne FFA degree ceremonies took place March 3. The officers set up the session in the gym and invited parents of the members who received awards; 60 members attended.
The chapter had 29 eighth graders receive the first year discovery degree. The next degree handed out was for mostly freshmen, the second and first year high schoolers in FFA. Those students were awarded the Greenhand FFA degree. Those students enjoyed adding their hand to the wall of green hands. The last degree is the highest degree that is given in a chapter – the Chapter degree. There were four members who were given that degree.
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LOUDONVILLE, Ohio — The Loudonville FFA chapter celebrated National FFA Week the week of Feb. 20. The Local theme was Feed the FFA Spirit.
The Loudonville FFA conducted the following activities for FFA week: They constructed a display in the Loudonville Equity windows. On Sunday, they spent some quality time with their families and loved ones. On Monday they went out to serve their community. They also has special activities for each school day. On Tuesday, they showed their appreciation to their teachers by hosting a teacher luncheon serving chili, baked potatoes, cornbread and more. They also dressed up in their FFA uniforms to show their FFA pride. On Wednesday, FFA members put together care packages. Thursday, the FFA sold root beer floats for $1 each. All of the proceeds went to the Children’s Hospital Network, one of Ohio FFA’s official charities.
One of the most anticipated days of the FFA calendar for some members is Drive-a-tractor-to- school day on Friday. Those that participated assembled at McDonald’s prior to the school day and then paraded up to the high school. They also held a dodgeball tournament as a mini Ag-Olympics.
Throughout the week, they held some FFA and agricultural related Kahoot games during lunch, where anyone could participate and learn more about agriculture.
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WEST SALEM, Ohio — The Northwestern-Wayne FFA chapter traveled to Snow Trails Feb. 7 to go tubing with other FFA chapters from around the area. Members who attended the event from Northwestern were Jadeyn Berry, Hanna Wilson, Mallory Gilbert, Lauren Vaughan, Hayden Cline, Melanie Imhoff, Westlea Stoltz, Kade Tegtmeier, Kaleb Badger, Chet McNeil, Case Hickson, Haley Caldwell, Taylor Wurst, Caeden Graham and Kirsten Boreman. A
long with the chapter, Smithville, Triway, the Wayne County Career Center, West Holmes, Hillsdale, Loundville, East Holmes and Norwayne all attended. Members went tubing together, met new people, and enjoyed pizza. A total of 234 FFA members attended this event.
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ohio — The Fayetteville FFA chapter celebrated National FFA Week from Feb. 22-25.There were dress up days each day of the week: Tuesday, Crazy Socks; Wednesday, Blue and Gold; Thurday, Camo Day; Friday, Flannel Day.On Tuesday, the Chapter held a Greenhand Degree ceremony. They honored 35 new members, and congratulated one special member on his placement in the Greenhand quiz. On Wednesday morning, members passed out goodie bags with snacks in them along with a thank you letter written by fellow members to school staff. On Thursday, the chapter met with the eighth graders to discuss all the opportunities in the FFA for them. Finally, on Friday the chapter ended the week by bringing ag to the classroom. The officers and select members taught the second graders of Fayetteville Elementary about soil horizons by doing an edible lab. The lab showed them the different layers and textures of the soil.
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EDON, Ohio — In celebration of FFA Week, the Edon FFA chapter organized an event called “Coins for Cancer” and encouraged all students preschool-12th grade to bring in change over the course of FFA Week. The class with the most money collected earned a doughnut party, with all proceeds going to the Cancer Assistance of Williams County.
Throughout the week, the contest promoted friendly competition between the grade levels. The winner was Mrs. Peter’s kindergarten class which brought in $279.40. In total, the students and faculty at Edon raised $1,650.56 during the event.
Cancer Assistance of Williams County is committed to serving individuals who are in crisis by counseling patients and their families during and after diagnosis, as well as offering financial assistance with medication, mileage, and other medical expenses. This was the fourth year that the FFA has held a fundraiser for this organization, and because of the success of the event, they plan on making it an annual community service project.
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MILLERSBURG, Ohio — West Holmes FFA members went on Feb. 7 to Snow Trails with nine other chapters for the annual snow tubing event. Members who attended include: Dyllan Bender, Kalan Bowling, Ian Barr, Maison Carter, Cora Crilow, Hailey Conner, Laina Croskey, Maren Drazga, Ethan Feikert, Garrett Fowler, Olivia Gerber, Brody Gindlesburger, Keith Hawkins, Justice Hendrix, Liberty Hendrix, Garrett Houin, Sarah Irwin, Amy Hughes, Jimmy Lesiak, Derek Miller, Pacee Miller, Ally Ogi, Casey Ogi, Taelor Patterson, Alex Pringle, Alysa Pringle, Bree Pringle, Leah Reining, Natalie Rohr, Torrie Savage, Andi Schuch, Becca Schuch, Jenna Sheldon, Chloe Shumaker, Lexy Starner, Zora Starner, Alexa Tate, Ashley Tate, Quentin Vehrs and Elijah Williams-Dixon. The members then snow tubed for two hours and ate pizza.
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WARSAW, Ohio — The River View FFA held many events to celebrate National FFA Week. Members held an Ag Awareness Event at the Coshocton Tractor Supply to welcome customers, tell about FFA week and encourage them to contribute to the National FFA Grants for Growing Program.
Members participated in daily dress up days and social media challenges. They also made and served pancakes and sausage to all high school students, staff, bus drivers and administrationThe chapter also held a business meeting where the Coshocton Farm Bureau presented information on the Farm Bureau Organization. Throughout the week the chapter also collected canned food and other non-perishable items to donate to a local food pantry.
The River View Ag Sales team competed in the District 8 Ag Sales CDE on March 1. The contest was hosted at West Muskingum. The team was made up of Brianna Karr, Lean Allen, Emma Prouty and Chloey Geog. The team placed fourth in the contest with Leah Allen placing fourth as an individual.
