by Jessie Berisford, Reporter

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FFA Meeting

            The next FFA meeting will be on Monday, May 15th. The Ag challenge for this meeting will be a tug-of-war. There will need to be a total of ten members from each grade 5 girls and 5 guys. Girls against girls and guys against guys.

March of Dimes Walk

            Ten members recently attended the March of Dimes Walk in Chillicothe. These members were Jessie Berisford, Adam Baldwin, Judd Ellinger, Kyle Kennedy, Kayla Notestone, Jodi Roush, April Senften, Dustin Baxter, Josh Cordle and Laurie Segovia . The chapter donated $400 to the March of Dimes. The mission of the March of Dimes is to prevent birth defects and infant mortality. Thank you to all members who walked for a great cause.

State Skills Contests

                The State Skills Contests were held on Saturday April, 1st. The Wildlife Management team consisted of: April Senften, Cerene Kilbarger, Stacey Sams, Josh Ayers, and Randy Forrest, placing 13th in the State. Randy placed 176th, Josh Ayers placed 89th, Stacey placed 68th, Cerene placed 54th, and April placed 30th.

            The General Livestock team place 81st in the State contest. This team consisted of: Kyle Kennedy placing 237th, Judd Ellinger placing 277th, Emerson Martin placing 477th, Dylan Branham placing 623rd, Greg Bowers placing 694th, Cameron Shaw placing 746th, Pat Foley placing 754th, and J.D. Stover placing 767th.  

            The Equine Management team placed 68th at the State contest. The team consisted of Cassie McFarland, Alyssa Diltz, and Megan Gierhart. Cassie placed 390th, Alyssa placed 350th, and Megan placed 60th.

            In Agronomy, Ryan Davis II placed 81st and Brittany Pinkstock placed 91st.

            The Nature Interpretation team placed 10th in the State. This is the first time so far that this contest has placed this high at the state level. Alyssa Jenkins placed 30th, David Sams placed 31st, and Josh Cordle placed 33rd.

                The Dairy Judging team consisted of: K ayla Notestone, Jodi Roush, and Sarah Rogers. Kayla Notestone placed 8th, Jodi Roush placed 84th, and Sarah Rogers placed 198th. A big congratulations goes out to Kayla because this is the first time our school has ever had someone place within the top ten in the state in the Dairy contest. Congratulations to all members of these teams.

State FFA Convention

            The State FFA Convention is going to be on Thursday May 4th, Friday May 5th and Saturday May 6th. All members who are planning to attend will need to participate in a CDE contest on Friday morning. There will be  three choices to the members which will be Greenhand Quiz, Cooperative Education, and Ag Engineering Technology. The cost of this trip will vary depending on if members sold mulch or not. The following members are planning on attending: Lars Abel, Adam Baldwin, Jessie Berisford, Christine Boso, Greg Bowers, Dylan Branham, C.J. Broaddus, Gene Brown, Christine Bussert, Josh Cordle, Crystal Covell, Courtney Cox, Ryan Davis, Judd Ellinger, D.J. Hopkins, Alyssa Jenkins, Kyle Kennedy, Ashley Lamb, Kayla Notestone, Brittany Pinkstock, Chelsea Polt, David Sams, Stacey Sams, Laurie Segovia, Ray Spence, Cody Thomson, Brain Bussert and Christian Hoffman.

Chapter Awards Banquet

            The Chapter Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday May, 20th. All members are required to attend, and members are strongly encouraged to wear their official dress. All members are encouraged to bring their families. Remember, this is a pot luck so bring enough food for as many people that you bring. Freshman and sophomores need to bring a dinner item and juniors and seniors will need to bring a dessert item. The chapter will be providing chicken, ham, rolls, drinks, and table service. If you bring your whole family make sure that you bring enough food for everyone who comes. Remember, potato chips are not a dinner item!

District Officer Training

            On April 6th, the officers and their assistants attended the District 7 Officer Training at Lancaster High School.  Those who attended were: Adam Baldwin, Jodi Roush, Alyssa Jenkins, Josh Cordle, Brittany Pinkstock, C.J. Broaddus, Jessie Berisford, Kayla Notestone, Ryan Davis II, Judd Ellinger, and Kyle Kennedy . The officers participated in many different leadership activities and workshops.

Small EnginesCDE

            The District Small Engines contest was held on April 4th. The team was made up of Dani Sowers, Stacey Sams, and David Sams. Stacey placed 7th, Dani placed 12th, and David placed 17th. The team placed 4th overall. 

Baby Animal Farm

            The chapters baby animal farm is going to be held on May 12th. Members will bring in a variety of different animals and the elementary students and teachers will be coming down to see the animals.

Mulch Sale Totals

            Congratulations to Greg Bowers who was the top mulch seller this year with 1,000 bags of mulch which is a new record. Adam Baldwin came in second with 509 bags of mulch. Congratulations!

Top Mulch Sellers Trip

            The top 15 was cut off at  183 bags of mulch or more this year. The mulch trip this year will be to Ohiopyle State Park located southeast of Pittsburg on May 25th,  26th, 27th,  and 28th. The members attending will be leaving right after school of Thursday May 25th and will return on Sunday May 28th. On this trip members will be rafting on the Youghigheny River,  and wild caving and rappelling in the Laurel Caverns.

Ag Honor Roll

            Congratulations to the following people who made Ag Honor Roll for the 3rd nine weeks grading period. Ag Science I: Nathan Brumfield, Dustin Cox, Ryan Davis II, Ethan Mathias, Matt Taylor, Chris Werling, Brett Bentz, C.J. Broaddus, Dylan Branham, Josh Cordle, Alyssa Diltz, D.J. Hopkins, Seth Farmer, Alyssa Jenkins, Matt Miller, Brittany Pinkstock, Ray Spence, J.D. Stover, Randy Forrest, Cody Frank, David Sams and Ryan Watkins. Ag Business II : Dan Flowers. Ag Business I : Josh Ayers, Adam Baldwin, Jessica Caisse, Crystal Covell, Ashley Lamb, and April Senften. AMTA : Holli Arledge, Dustin Baxter, Josh Behrens, Justin Caughenbaugh and Dan Wampler. Ag Options II : Debbie Picklesimer and Cerene Kilbarger. Ag Science II : Judd Ellinger, Madison Fausnaugh, Taylor Griebel, Kyle Kennedy, Max Noll, Jodi Roush, Thunder Shahan, Jessie Berisford, Josh Carroll, Adam Baldwin, Andrew Gobel, Heather McGuire, and Kayla Notestone. Ag Production I : Christine Boso, Courtney Cox, Bobbi Edwards, Stacey Sams, Laurie Segovia, Adam Baldwin, Christine Bussert, Bill Davis, April Senften and Ben Ball. Ag Production II : Amanda Campbell, Dan Flowers, Kelsey Johnston, Alisha Kougher, Chelsea Polt, Brent Poston, Alex Reid, Zac Saum, and Nic White.

FFA Camp

            FFA Camp this year is going to be Monday thru Friday July 10th thru the 15th. FFA Camp is members who are enrolled in Ag classes from all over the state come to camp for a week in Muskingum, Ohio. There are five general sessions at FFA Camp and our school attends the fifth. At FFA Camp members get the chance to get away from home for a week and get to participate in many fun activities. There are also a couple of dances at FFA Camp. This is a great opportunity for FFA members to meet and associate with FFA members all over the state.

OSU Students Come to Visit

            Last Friday, all of  the Agricultural Education student teachers from The Ohio State University came to tour the school’s program. The student teachers observed Mr. Sharp in class and in the shop while he was teaching. Mr. Saxton also spoke to the student teachers. Nic White, Christine Boso, Christine Bussert, Jessie Berisford, and  Jimmie Gordon also spoke to the students. Mr. Tilley also spoke to the students teachers about the program and about FFA in general.

                In the afternoon, Mr. Tilley and Mr. Sharp had labs set-up so the student teachers could practice their lab skills such as welding, woodworking, soldering, and small engines.

            These student teachers have visited three other Ag Ed programs in Pennsylvania and will visit one more program in Ohio to fulfill their class requirements. This was a big honor for the A-C Ag Ed program to be visited by the OSU Ag Ed program which is one of the top programs in the country.