FFA News

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013/National FFA Organization) – The U.S. Department of Education has appointed a highly experienced and accomplished education professional to help develop, implement and manage policy for the National FFA Organization.

Sherene R. Donaldson of Alexandria, Va., has been appointed National FFA executive secretary. In her leadership role, she will be primarily responsible for issuing charters to state FFA associations as directed by the organization’s national board of directors, keep official membership records, track progress of the organization and oversee state FFA association reporting to the board.

In December, she joined the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education in Washington, D.C., as an education program specialist. The department administers and coordinates national programs related to adult education and literacy, career and technical education and community colleges. Previously, Donaldson was curriculum and adult education director at Central Nine Career Center in Greenwood, Ind.,… Continue reading

The West Holmes FFA chapter held their annual fruit sale during October, November and December. The chapter successfully sold 964 cases of fruit and 1,924 tins of nuts, selling a total of over $56,000. The top ten salesmen were the following: Justin Lorentz, 174.50 cases; William Hughes, 144.25 cases; Samantha Krejci, 92.25 cases; Mandy Taylor, 85.50 cases; Megan Miller, 79.25 cases; Tanner Goines, 48.00 cases; Matt and Hannah Schlegel, 46.00 cases; Beth Klein, 42.00 cases; Grayson and Paige Miller, 39.50 cases, and Liz Overholt, 37.25 cases. Extra fruit was donated to the Lighthouse-Love Center. There is still BBQ sauce, and tins of nuts still available. Thank you for your continued support of the chapter.

The West Holmes FFA chapter sold Christmas Trees this year for the first time. Over three weekends the chapter sold a total of 30 trees. The fundraiser was sponsored by Rodhe’s IGA, and Sycamore Hollow Tree Farm.… Continue reading

The Preble Shawnee FFA recently held a 7^th grade career day. The activity was held to showcase three careers that 7^th graders can pursue through agriculture. The committee that organized this event was the Ag Career Skills. Members of the committee included Austin Moore, Darian Rader, Lacey Hill, Joan Anderson, Sidney Hibbard, and Kelsey Klamm.

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by: Bret King The Logan Elm FFA followed up on their “Living to Serve” theme during the Christmas season. The chapter adopted two families from the school district to help for Christmas. After talking with the families, the Leadership class developed a list of gifts for the children in the two families. Tags were made, hung on a tree and members in the entire chapter had the opportunity to take a tag and purchase that gift. Several gifts were donated to the children of the two families.

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South Central FFA Chapter in Greenwich, Oh composed this karaoke remix of “Man! I Feel Like A Women” by Shania Twain to “Man! I Feel Like a Farmer.” It was composed by members LeeAnn Montgomery, Carrie Lortcher, Mickala Brusacoram and Breanna Legg.… Continue reading

The gang from South Central FFA in Huron Co. submitted “Farm Boy Swag”, changing the words to the song Pretty Boy Swag.

Collin Warrick, David Seidel and  Megan Cornish are the members behind the song.… Continue reading

The January 2013 Miami East FFA Member of the Month is Danielle Danielson. She is the daughter of Dan and Debbie Danielson of Troy.

Danielle is a sophomore and second year member of the Miami East FFA Chapter. She has participated in State and National FFA Conventions, FFA Camp, and horse judging. She recently was the third highest seller in the FFA Fruit Sales Fundraiser, selling over $1,600.00 worth of fruit. Danielle is also the FFA’s representative on the Miami County Junior Fair Board. Her Supervised Agricultural Experience Program is market swine and job placement on a local horse farm.

Every month of the school year the Miami East FFA will select a student to be the FFA Member of the Month.  The officer team will nominate one student that has been actively involved in the FFA chapter, school and community activities.  If selected, the member will be recognized at the monthly FFA meeting, have their picture displayed in the Miami East Ag Room, and will receive a special gift in celebration of their accomplishment.… Continue reading

The Preble Shawnee FFA beginning team will participate in the Parliamentary Procedure at the state level. The team will travel to Columbus for the contest and compete against nine other FFA beginning teams from around the state. The team consists of Adi Via, Austin Brewer, Jacob Kamm, Kaitlyn McGarvey, Kerriston Wilson, Rachel Jones, Payton Roberts, and Savannah Schneider.… Continue reading

The Preble Shawnee FFA Chapter volunteered with the Blue Star Mothers. The Chapter took donations from the entire school to send holiday care packages to our troops overseas. Then the FFA members helped pack the packages to send to the troops. The packages included a variety of items including a small Christmas tree, snacks, hygiene items, and reading material.… Continue reading

By Emily Daniel, chapter reporter

Twenty members of the members of the Mohawk FFA Chapter received their Greenhand Degree.  The members were awarded on December 3, at the December FFA meeting. Members were Jena Baum, Chelsy Mattox, Blaec Kearns, Michael Shaw, Caleb Bollinger, Sara Spencer, Jordon Wheeler, Paige Sigler, Morgan Edgington, Austin Miller, Joanie Lininger, Aaron Williams, Megan Cleveland, Logan Reinhart, Dominic Smith, Katie Pinkston, Tori Chaney, Cambria Kohlenberg, Vanessa Stull and Meghan Ohl.

To earn this degree, first year members must be enrolled in agricultural education class, have a plan for their supervised agriculture experience, and explain FFA fundamentals.  During the ceremony, the FFA officers welcomed and handed out pins and certificates to the Greenhands.  Also during the ceremony freshmen presented the FFA creed and the chapter heard from a state FFA officer.… Continue reading

By Amanda Seger and Tommy Meyer, chapter reporters

Forestry field days were put on and organized by the Shelby County Soil and Water. This year it was held in Fort Loramie hosted by Denny Zigenbushe. The Fort Loramie FFA volunteered members to help run the sessions. Fort Loramie FFA members helped with several different stations such as assisting and teaching the youth how to use a hand crank apple peeler, and a hand crank corn shucker. Members also helped with face painting, making glitter pinecones, and a Jr. Cruise Tour, which taught kids about the types of trees around them and general knowledge of each tree. Each member that participated was able to interact with the community and share information about nature.

The Fort Loramie FFA is a satellite program of the Upper Valley Career Center.

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By Madison Sheahan, chapter reporter
On November 27 the Genoa FFA chapter Parliamentary Procedure teams competed in the sub-district Parliamentary Procedure competition. The chapter had a Senior team and the novice team. The senior team had all of the chapter officers plus two members. This included: Rachael Weber-President, Nick Keller-Vice president, Seth Morrison-Treasurer, Marissa Crosby- Secretary, Madison Sheahan-Reporter, John George-Sentinel, Kevin Witt-Student advisor, plus Dakota Sheahan and Nathan Moore-members. Both the senior team and the freshman team moved on to compete at the distract competition, which took place on December 6 at Ayersville High School. The make-up of our teams changed due to wrestling meets and basketball games. Each team had several practices in the mornings before school. The senor team took sixth and the freshman team took fourth. Parliamentary Procedure is used to run meeting and conduct business. Students learning these skills will benefit local governments, organizations and businesses with their knowledge.… Continue reading

The Miami East FFA Alumni Chapter is sponsoring a Basket Bingo on Sunday, January 27th  at 2:00pm in the Miami East High Cafeteria. This is a change in location from previous years. Beautiful and functional Longaberger Baskets will be the prize for the 20 games, with the grand prize being a retired basket feature. Doors will open at 1:30.

Tickets are $20 for the 20 games and a raffle entry. There will also be raffles, extra games, and concessions sales offered. All winning tie-breaking cards win a consolation prize of a Longaberger product.

Tickets can be purchased by calling the Miami East FFA Alumni Chapter at (937) 335-7070 ext. 3212 or by purchasing them at the door.

All funds raised will be donated to the Miami East FFA Chapter in support of their community activities and leadership development.… Continue reading

By Amanda Seger, chapter reporter

The Fort Loramie FFA Chapter’s annual fruit, peanut, and barbeque sauce sale has recently come to an end. This sale serves as the organization’s major fundraiser and luckily for the chapter, this year’s sales have been one of the most successful.  The Fort Loramie FFA chapter reached their goal of $20,000 by selling over $23,000 worth of fruit, peanuts, barbeque sauce, and Jack Links Beef Jerky. The proceeds from this fundraiser benefit local chapter activities, leadership conferences, conventions, donations, and entry fees for career development events.  2012’s top sellers were 1^st place, Katelyn and Amanda Seger selling $1,896 worth of fruit, 2^nd place was Darrin Seger selling $1,582 worth of fruit, 3^rd place was Laura and Nathan Poeppelman selling $904 worth of fruit, 4^th place was Trey Manger selling $875 and 5^th place was Andy and Kevin Meyer selling $785. Members donated the extra fruit to the Holy Angels Soup Kitchen.… Continue reading

By Sheiann Mead, chapter reporter

Twenty four members of the Greenville FFA Chapter received the Greenhand FFA Degree, the first high school degree awarded to members of the National FFA Organization.  This honor recognizes demonstrated knowledge and achievements in agricultural awareness, leadership, and career development and community service programs.   To be eligible for this degree, you must be a first year member, know the creed and motto, understand the code of ethics, and know how to properly wear the FFA Jacket, know the meaning the FFA Emblem and Colors, and have knowledge of the organization’s history

The members received the Degree at a special meeting held for inducting the new Greenhands into the Greenville FFA Chapter.  Each recipient receives a Bronze FFA emblem pin and a certificate from the local chapter. Those receiving the Greenhand degree this year included  Sam Ball, Kyle Carlisle, Daniel Cline, Kamryn Coppock, Kelsey Crandall, Noah Ellerman, Bryan Flory, Bradley Garber, Brady Garber, Nelson Roberts, Hannah Smith, Judge Welbaum, Nicole Garland, Sara Gibboney, Dylan Kolb, Dalton Mayer, Olivia McDade, Aaron Miniard, Spencer Monnin, Victoria Nader, Ryan Ramsey, Patrick Schmitmeyer, Jena Snyder, and Matthew Wooten.… Continue reading

By Stephanie Leaman, chapter reporter
At the beginning of the school year the Anthony Wayne FFA chapter contemplated on some ways to get the incoming freshmen involved in the chapter. One of the ideas was to set up bigs and littles. In the past this had been set up but it was unorganized and wasn’t put to use all that much. So this year we decided to try it again and so far it has been really helpful to the freshmen students. At the first meeting of the year every freshmen was paired up with an upper classman. The students sat by each other and got to know one another during that first meeting. Throughout the year there have been many activities that the bigs and littles have done together. At the conclusion of the November FFA meeting, the bigs and littles played whiffle ball in the school’s gymnasium. After the December meeting bigs and littles got to make ornaments and decorate a tree that was put in the classroom. … Continue reading

By Stephanie Leaman, chapter reporter
This winter the Anthony Wayne FFA teamed up with the Anthony Wayne FCCLA and hosted a winter wear and sock drive. The drive was held in December and was very successful. There were boxes put in the main office at the school and also in the agriculture classroom. Over 90 coats were collected during this drive, along with additional winter clothing. A few chapter members helped sort the clothing and they were taken to Hope United Methodist Church in Whitehouse, Ohio where the church hosts a clothing closet. The coat drive was very successful this year and the FFA chapter hopes to have an even more successful drive next year.… Continue reading

By Stephanie Leaman, chapter reporter
The Anthony Wayne FFA chapter is preparing themselves for the annual pork dinner which is held each year in January. This is an event where the FFA alumni hosts a dinner at the Anthony Wayne High School. At the dinner there is great food served and a silent auction where all the proceeds go to the alumni. Items that are usually in the silent auction include equipment, baskets made by the agriculture classes, and other donated items. The FFA chapter members volunteer shifts at the dinner, whether it is serving food, picking up trash, or cleaning off tables. The pork dinner is a great way for the alumni to make money and it is also a good way to get involved in the community.… Continue reading

Madison Plains advanced and novice parliamentary procedure teams recently placed first out of 8 FFA chapters at the southern sub district FFA parliamentary procedure contest, both teams are now eligible for the district contest. FFA Parliamentary Procedure teams conduct a mock chapter meeting to demonstrate their knowledge of basic parliamentary law and the correct use parliamentary procedures.… Continue reading

Several members of the Zane Trace FFA Chapter recently learned how to fully embody the FFA motto of “Living to Serve” through their Hurricane Sandy Relief Project. Throughout the month of November, the members who were a part of the Leadership class worked closely with the CROP Church World Service foundation to provide victims of Hurricane Sandy with clean up buckets and blankets in the wake of the storm.

The members in the class separated into three different committees, and each committee was designed to accomplish a different goal. One committee was designed to work with preschool through second grade students to educate them on hurricanes and to collect coins to purchase items for the clean up buckets. Another worked with third through fifth grade, collecting items to fill the buckets, and the final committee worked with high school students, raising money to purchase blankets.

Through efforts involving a bake sale and providing hospitality at the basketball tip-off classic, the high school committee raised $700.00 which is enough money to purchase one hundred and forty blankets.… Continue reading