With the arrival of spring, many school activities are over or nearing their end. But to the Northwestern and Tecumseh FFA chapters, springtime means participating in livestock judging contests, gearing up for the annual Ohio FFA State Convention, planning FFA chapter banquets, and participating in other activities that mark one of FFA’s busiest times of year.

FFA is an inter-curricular student organization that operates on the local, state, and national levels.  The program guides members towards learning about and experiencing agricultural careers and developing leadership. According to the FFA official website, www.ffa.org, “FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.”

According to the Northwestern FFA chapter’s advisor, Erica Hilliard, April will see the chapter organizing a game plan for May’s “Farm Day” and the chapter’s annual banquet. Northwestern’s annual FFA banquet is used to recognize FFA members who have earned awards during the year, as well parents and community members who support the FFA and Agricultural Education programs.  Hilliard also announced that Northwestern FFA member, Lindsay Fries, was recently crowned the 2016 Clark County Fair Pork Queen.  

Todd Vehorn, the advisor of Tecumseh’s FFA chapter, says the chapter’s members involved in a variety of FFA livestock judging contests will compete in the State competition in Columbus on April 2. The Tecumseh FFA banquet will be held on April 14 from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm at Tecumseh High School. The chapter is also organizing a blood drive to be held on May 2 from 8am to noon at Tecumseh High School. The chapter also boasts that three FFA members who will receive State FFA Degrees at the Ohio State FFA Convention taking place on May 5-6, 2016 at the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus, Ohio.

Hilliard and Vehorn also recently met with Scott Griffith from the New Carlisle Farmers Market (NCFM). The meeting was used to begin developing ways to increase FFA member involvement in the annual NCFM and, possibly, even the New Carlisle community gardens. Hiliard says Northwestern FFA members Noah and Jonah Kerr have been actively involved as vendors at in the market and she would like to see other students get involved, perhaps such as working as “middlemen” to support local produce farmers who want to participate in the market, but do not have the manpower to do so. Hilliard says she believes there are many opportunities and ideas floating around that will increase FFA members’ involvement in the NCFM, the details “just need to be worked out.”