| FFA provides Olathe students with opportunities for leadership, travel |
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| Written by News Release | |||
| Thursday, 26 February 2009 13:39 | |||
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The Olathe FFA chapter has been busy during the 2008-2009 school year.
We have attended leadership camps throughout the year and participated in many district competitions. The most important thing though is that we have had a blast being a great chapter. During the first week of June some officers and members attended the State FFA Convention in Sterling. We got sidetracked on the way up there and stayed a night in Denver to go on a “water quality” field trip at Water World. After that we headed to Sterling in a rainstorm. We had some tornado warnings, but it didn’t seem to dampen the wonderful spirit of Colorado FFA members. The convention was full of good workshops, competitions, and social gatherings. At the end of June our president, Kailee Wahlberg, and vice president, Kelsi Middleton, traveled to WLC, held in Washington D.C. FFA officers all across the nation came to this conference to learn leadership skills and how to best serve their chapter. Kailee and Kelsi had a lot of fun, met many new people, toured our nation’s capitol, and above all learned tons of information. In July the whole officer team traveled to Winter Park to attend Colt Camp. The 2008-2009 officer team consisting of Kailee Wahlberg, president, Kelsi Middleton, vice president, Devon Brown, vice president, Levi Weber, secretary, Seb Wollert, treasurer, JT Shaver, sentinel, Casey Davis, reporter, Bailie Lasher, historian, Eric Mort, parliamentarian, Amanda Castle, chaplain, and Cody Kaylor, executive committee member, participated in workshops and other activities that helped them learn how to cooperate and work together as a team. They also met other officer teams, saw old friends, and made new ones. The team really enjoyed the experience and would recommend the camp to others. The end of July was full of activities with the Montrose County Fair. The officer team worked hard on the Olathe FFA fair booth which was an old-time blacksmith shop. We won third this year, which was a step up from seventh last year. Many students showed various animals at fair like horses, steers, lambs, chickens, and pigs. Then another school year started. A few chapter meetings and new faces started off the year. We held a tailgate party with the help of the Olathe FFA Alumni during a football game to raise money for the alumni. It must have been something in the chili because our football team, consisting of many Olathe FFA members, was state 2A football champions! Our other fund raiser was the annual oyster fry and hired hand auction, which was a success. It raised about $7,000, which helps with the numerous FFA activities throughout the year. The freshmen started practicing for the creed speaking competition during class by memorizing the creed and reciting it. The district creed speaking and parliamentary procedure competition was hosted by Olathe during December. Our creed speakers, Becca Tolen and Joe McCracken, received third and fifth respectively and Becca will be competing at the State FFA Convention in June. The parliamentary procedure team (consisting of president Kailee Wahlberg, vice president Kelsi Middleton, Lindsay Case, Crystal Holton, secretary Levi Weber, Tawni Middleton and the backups of co-vice president Devon Brown, Hubert Kimberlin, and chaplain Amanda Castle) practiced many long hours on test questions and also how to do the actual competition. The hard work paid off and our parliamentary procedure team received second place and will also be competing at the State FFA Convention in June. Probably the most memorable trip for the Olathe FFA chapter this year was going to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Ind., during the third week of October for eight days. Before we went to that convention we spent three days in Kentucky touring the thoroughbred farms, the Keenland race track, Churchill Downs, Wild Turkey Distillery, and many other landmarks of Kentucky. After that amazing time we went up to Indy to participate in the National FFA Convention, along with 50,000 other FFA members from across the country. The members that went on this trip were Chad Homedew, Devon Brown, Levi Weber, JT Shaver, Casey Davis, and Ms. Franks. This January the chapter helped serve and host the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users’ annual meeting. Our chapter cooked a brisket meal with the help of the supportive OMHS cooks. We also set up the tables and cleaned up after the meeting. The week of Feb. 23-27 is National FFA Week. Monday is drive your tractor to school day. Tuesday is the petting zoo in the morning and Ag in the Classroom in the afternoon, all at Olathe Elementary School. Wednesday is Safety Day for sixth graders and then we will have our annual Casino Night for the members. Thursday is Ag Olympics consisting of stacking hay, roping a dummy, hooking up a trailer, moving feed sacks, and t-post driving. Friday is also the Ag Olympics and dress-up day with a prize for the best cowboy, best cowgirl, best redneck guy, and best redneck gal. The prize is a free lunch at PePe’s, Subway, or the B&C and the contest is open to the entire school. This is a brief overview of the past year’s activities for the Olathe FFA Chapter. We am sure there are some activities that we failed to mentioned, but for the most part that is a look at the year in review. Please come join us for the celebration of our 81st year on March 27 at the annual parent/member auction. Please call 240-6441 for ticket information.
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