the
2008-2009       Amanda Clearcreek            FFA  
 April Newsletter
Our Chapter is making a Difference !

 

Upcoming Events...
 
- April 11th: Promising Young                                Women’s Conference
- April 17th: Officer Training
- April 18th: Hocking College Field                        Days
- April 21st: Chapter Meeting &                             Adopt-a-Highway
- May 2nd-3rd: State FFA Conv.
- May 12th: Chapter Meeting
- May 17th: Chapter Awards                                 Banquet
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

  z Monthly Chapter Meeting z

   The monthly chapter meeting will be on Monday, April 16th, at 7 P.M. in the Ag. Center.  The Ag. Challenge will be the Volleyball Tournament.  Originally, the Scavenger Hunt was the Ag. Challenge, but due to no gym space at the March meeting we switched the two activities.  Also, the Juniors are winning the Ag. Challenge with 72 points.  The Sophomores and Freshmen are tied at 57 points with the Seniors in last place collecting only 19 points.

Invitational Contest Participants
                We attended two invitational contests, one at Marysville High School and the other at Ashland High School.  These were used to prepare the spring skills team for their state CDEs.  The participants were: Kelsie Sharp, J.D. Stover, Tyler VanHorn, Becca Bentz, Andrea Hollett, Megan Gierhart, Ashlee Reynolds, Kati Beedy, Jacklyn Darst, Colleen Trap, Brittany Pinksock, Dillon Pinkstock, Chris Sparkman, Kaleb Miller, Cody Epley, Tyler Genders, Ryan Mundy, Josh Templeton, Aaron Miller, Matt Hill, Kyle Klingler, Josh Cordle, David Sams, Alyssa Jenkins, Josh Hampshire, Scott Loudermilk, Mike Hite, Ed Johnson, Cody Sharp, and Teran Pinkstock.
State FFA Degrees
                The State FFA Degree is the highest degree a state association can award an FFA member. State FFA Degree winners represent the top 2% of the FFA members in the state in the given year. There are over 22,000 members in Ohio. The State Degree winners this year from our chapter are: Stacey Sams, Jessie Berisford, and Ryan Davis.  Congratulations to these members on this outstanding accomplishment!
 
State FFA Convention
                The Amanda-Clearcreek FFA attends the State FFA Convention annually. The State FFA Convention lasts for two days on the first weekend of May at the State Fairgrounds and is made-up of several different sessions. At those sessions, state officers and well-known presenters speak about previous experiences and developing leadership skills. Other activities include the election and presentation of the new state officers, proficiency awards are presented for those with outstanding SAE projects and the top contest teams and individuals are recognized. Students get a chance to meet FFA members from all over Ohio. Members going Friday have four CDEs to choose from: Greenhand Quiz, Cooperative Education, Farm Business Management, and Ag. Engineering Technology. Also they will eat at Damon’s and attend a dance later that night.  Members are encouraged to go both days, but  if one is preferred, it is Saturday.  The State winning Ag. Communications team will be recognized as well as the State FFA Degree winners and the Officer Books. Saturday this year, the biggest thing about convention for our chapter is that Jodi Roush is running for State FFA President.  We will know if she is on the ballot Friday, and if she is, election results will be announced on Saturday.  This would be only the 2nd person in our chapter to run for State President and possibly the first ever to BE STATE FFA PRESIDENT! She is currently serving as the State Reporter. Good luck Jodi!!  Members, get your permission forms into Mr. Sharp or Mr. Tilley ASAP!  We would like to have at least 50 members attend the convention this year.
 
State Officer Leadership Night
                Throughout the year, our FFA Chapter hosts a State Officer Leadership Night. Only certain FFA Chapters are selected to host this activity and our chapter normally is one of them. State Officer Leadership Night is where members of our FFA Chapter and members of other FFA Chapters meet to get better leadership skills. Members are split into groups with one or two state officers. Members then participate in leadership activities and talk about what ideas they can take back to their chapter to become a better leader. Members are moved through a rotation so that they experience the different workshops that are prepared by each state officer in attendance. At the end, our chapter provides those in attendance with food and drink.
    In the past few years, our chapter has also attended a State FFA Officer Leadership Night hosted by other FFA chapters in our local area later in the school year.  This year, we attended Northridge High School on Tuesday, March 18th for the leadership night hosted by their FFA chapter.  Jodi Roush, our past president, was one of the State Officers present.  Members that attended were: Mike Hite, Jacob White, Jonathan Wampler, Titus Disbennett, Chris Sparkman, Josh Hampshire, Lyndsey Alexander, J.D. Stover, Hannah Chenetski, Holly Castle, Morgan Baldwin, Hayley Moss, Damian Karcher, Bridgitte Kyser, Ike Sowers, Alyssa Jenkins, David Sams, Josh Cordle, Scott Loudermilk, Ray Spence, and Tara McCalla.
District 7 Officer Training
    On Thursday April 17, 2007, officers and assistant officers will be attending the District 7 Officer Training Conference at Lancaster High School at     4:30 P.M.  This is an excellent opportunity for our officers to learn more about their respective offices and gain valuable leadership skills.  All officers and assistant officers are expected to attend.
Chapter Award Applications
    Chapter award applications are going to be due to Mr. Tilley by April 15th. All members are encouraged to submit a completed chapter award application with the required supporting materials. Applications can be found on the Ag Ed Department computers in Mr. Tilley’s classroom. We would like to be able to recognize those FFA members who have excelled this year during the Chapter Awards Banquet, so please complete the award application!
Adopt-A-Highway
    The Amanda-Clearcreek FFA has adopted a section of State Route 159 to clean-up as part of ODOT's Adopt-a-Highway program. The chapters section runs from just south of Tommy Wayne's Pizza to the south end of Oakland, comprising three total miles. The chapter holds an Adopt-a-Highway clean-up after school about two times a year and once during the summer months. During these clean-ups, members of the chapter walk along the highway and pick-up trash. After this is done, the ODOT workers come by and pick-up the bags of trash. This makes for a cleaner and healthier environment. This is one of the many community service projects provided by the Amanda-Clearcreek FFA. Our chapter is big on community service and we want a lot of members participating.  This helps our community by being cleaner, healthier, and makes it look sharp and respectable.  The next clean-up will be held on Monday, April 21st.  All members not involved in a spring sport should attend.
 
Mulch Sale/Flower Bulb Sale
    Sometime in the early 1990's, the Amanda-Clearcreek FFA started selling bags of mulch as a Spring fund raiser. This fund raiser has proved successful and the chapter has continued to sell the 3 cubic foot bags of mulch, expanding from just Cypress mulch in the beginning to now include Hardwood (1996), Pine Nugget (2001), Colored Enhanced Red (2005) mulch. and Color Enhanced Black (2008) mulch. We purchase our mulch from Mulch Manufacturing in Reynoldsburg, OH.  This year the sale is lacking energy and currently we have only sold around 3000 bags total.  Members NEED to SELL MULCH.  This fundraiser is key to our chapter running smoothly and with success.  If you want to participate in all the activities possible with the least cost for you, sell mulch.  This sale cannot be stressed enough.  The sale ends Wednesday, April 16th.
    The Spring Flower Bulb Sale is a small fund raising activity that has been intermittenly used in the past but now has become an annual activity of our chapter. Members sell bulb packs of various types of flowers to individuals within our community. Profits from this activity can be used by the FFA members who earned them to help pay for the Summer FFA Camp, purchase an FFA Jacket or for other costs a member might incur through FFA activities.  This activity ended Wednesday, April 2.  Thanks to all the members who sold, to everyone who purchased and/or in any other way contributed to this fundraiser.
 
State CDE’s
 
    The Amanda-Clearcreek FFA members participate in many different contests throughout the year. The FFA provides members a competitive yet educational outlet for them to exercise what they learn in their agricultural education classes. Here are the results of the Spring State CDEs:
 
  1. General Livestock
    The General Livestock CDE is an educational program designed as a practical method of teaching students to recognize quality production animals. The skills students learn in evaluating general livestock should make them better livestock producers and consumers by giving them practical experience in identifying and understanding characteristics that affect production and quality.   The team placed 121st this year.  Tyler VanHorn placed 67th individually while Becca Bentz placed 412th along with Andrea Hollett placing 679th.  This team had a lot of members drop out and Andrea’s test was not scored as a part of the team score due to complications on the score sheet.  Thanks to A-C FFA Alumni member, Christian Hoffman, who coached this CDE this year.
 
  1. Agronomy
    The Agronomy Career Development Event is designed to assess the student’s knowledge of agronomic practices for the production of field and forage crops. A practical examination requires the student to identify specimens of crop and weed plants and seeds, diseases, and insects or their damage. An individual written test covers the use of soil test analysis and County Soil Surveys, current agronomic practices, and fertilizer, pesticide or sprayer calibration problems and their solution. A team evaluation will consist of an applied field management problem.  This year the team placed 20th.  Brittany Pinkstock placed 65th individually, Teran Pinkstock 111th, and Dillon Pinkstock 113th.  Thanks to A-C FFA Alumni member, Ben Blosser, who coached the team this year.
 
  1. Nature Interpretation
    The Nature Interpretation CDE was created to stimulate interest and to promote instruction in nature interpretation as well as to provide recognition for those who have demonstrated skills and competencies as a result of natural resources instruction. The team placed 5th in State missing 4th place by two points!  Mike Hite placed 5th individually! These are the highest any team and person has placed in this contest in our chapter’s history.  Alyssa Jenkins placed 12th, Josh Cordle placed 14th, David Sams placed 21st, Scott Loudermilk placed 47th, and Josh Hampshire placed 49th individually.  Many things are expected from this team next year as all the members are returning!
 
  1. Wildlife Management
    The purpose for the Wildlife CDE is to stimulate interest and to promote instruction in the areas of fish and wildlife management, as well as, to provide recognition for those who have demonstrated skills and competencies as a result of natural resources instruction.  The team placed 8th in the State!  Matt Hill placed 15th, Kaleb Miller placed 51st, Aaron Miller placed 55th, Cody Epley placed 93rd, Tyler Genders placed 109th, and Kyle Klingler placed 167th individually.  Many things are also expected from this team next year.
  1. Equine Management
    The horse management CDE is an educational activity designed as a practical method of teaching students current horse evaluation and selection techniques and management.  The team placed 77th this year.  Kati Beedy placed 211th, Colleen Trap placed 398th, and Jackalynne Darst placed 399th individually.
 
Congratulations to all these teams for their efforts and achievements.
March of Dimes
        On April 20, 2008, in Chillicothe, members are encouraged to participate in the March of Dimes walk.  This walk is used to help promote awareness about premature births and raises money for research. In 1938, President Roosevelt established the March of Dimes.  Everyday, an estimated 1280 babies are born premature and 411 babies are born with defects.  Prematurity is the leading killer of America's newborns.  Those who survive often have lifelong health problems, including cerebral palsy, mental retardation, chronic lung disease, blindness and hearing loss.  Prematurity has been escalating steadily and alarmingly over the past two decades. In 2004, more than 500,000 infants were born prematurely, the highest number ever reported for the U.S. In 2005, the United States as a society paid at least $26.2 billion in economic costs associated with pre-term birth (medical and educational expenses, loss in productivity).  Pre-term delivery can happen to any pregnant woman. The causes of nearly half of all pre-term births are unknown. The March of Dimes has taken on this devastating problem— to find out what causes it and how it can be stopped.
   We, as a chapter, have participated in the March of Dimes walk for at least the last 3 years. Members are encouraged to go and need to meet at the Ag. Shop on Sunday, April 23rd at 8:00 A.M. Details about the walk will be provided to members in class. Our goal is to have at least 40 members attend this year.
 
Proficiency Awards
    Proficiency awards are based upon a member's Supervised Agricultural Experience Project(s). Applicants must complete and submit their project books and a detailed application. Project books are evaluated for accuracy and neatness while the applications are also evaluated for these factors plus numerous others such as the description of skills learned, supporting pictures, etc. Currently each February, applications are reviewed for accuracy at the District level and submitted to the State level for further evaluation and placing. Those applicants deemed to be in the top few (generally the top four) in the state in their respective area are then interviewed. From these final applicants, three are then selected as the top three in the state, receiving their final placing and award plaques at the State FFA Convention in May.
    Members that earned proficiency awards are as follows:
 
 
 
Stacey Sams
    Accounting * 1st in District
    Agricultural Sales Placement * 1st in District
 
Jessie Berisford
      Accounting * 2nd in District
 
April Senften
           Turf Grass Managment * 1st in District
Adam Foster
           Agricultural Services * 1st in District
Ryan Davis
             Diversified Crop Production Ent. * 1st in District
             Fiber and/or Oil Crop Production * 1st in District
             Grain Production Ent. * 2nd in District
Josh Cordle
    Turf Grass Management * 3rd in District
Kaleb Miller
    Outdoor Recreation * 3rd in District
Tara McCalla
    Sheep Production * 2nd in District
Judd Ellinger
     Specialty Animal Production * 1st in District
     Agricultural Sales Placement * 2nd in District
      Star Farmer * 2nd in District
 
Jodi Roush
     Dairy Production Placement * 1st in District
     Organic Agriculture * 1st in District & Top 2 in State
Top Spring Fundraiser Trip
    Our FFA chapter sells mulch as a fund raiser each spring. Starting in 1996, the chapter started offering a weekend camping trip to the top 10 mulch sellers. Today, the top 15 sellers who sell in excess of 150 bags and the top 2 spring flower bulb sellers are eligible to attend. We have gone to West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Pennsylvania in past years. We go camping and generally do some other activity such as canoeing, overnight backpacking, white water rafting or wild caving. This trip held in late May and consists of a 3-day, 2-night adventure.
 
Promising Young Women’s Conference
    The Promising Young Women's Conference is held at The Ohio State University in Columbus during one day in the Fall of each year sponsored by the Sigma Alpha professional sorority. This conference shows high school girls the career opportunities in the field of agriculture while visiting parts of the OSU campus.
 
    This Conference allows young women to gain a more in-depth look of areas they are considering studying. Each attendee selects three agricultural areas, or fields, that they want to know more about. Then, during the conference, students meet with a professor or professional from that field for a question and answer session. Some examples of those fields are: Veterinary Science, Natural Resources, Agricultural Communications, Horticulture, Agricultural Business, Animal Science and Floriculture.  A student-guided tour of the campus is also given during the conference. Attendees walk around campus and see the Ag Campus facilities, dormitories, the Oval, the libraries, several classrooms and other features of the university.  The Promising Young Women's Conference is an excellent opportunity for students to learn more about agricultural careers and to visit the OSU campus. Our chapter offers this conference trip to girls enrolled in any of the sophomore, junior or senior agricultural educations classes each year.
    This conference is not held every year; however, when it is held, the A-C FFA tries to send members.   The young women attending the conference this year are: Sarah Rogers, Tara McCalla, Alyssa Jenkins, Tiffany Hayman, Anna Yousseti, Tori Waldbillig, Kendra Lama, Becca Bentz, Cynthia Cruit, Brittany Pinkstock, Erin Evans, Ashlee Reynolds, and Erin Hiestand.
 
Small Engines CDE
    Kody Strohm, David Sams, and Ray Spence make up this year’s Small Engines Team.  The name of this CDE was changed this year to the Outdoor Power Equipment Career Development Event (CDE).  The Outdoor Power Equipment  CDE is an extension of the Agricultural  Education classroom and laboratory. Additionally, this CDE serves as an authentic assessment designed  to evaluate students’ knowledge in recognizing and repairing malfunctions in Outdoor Power Equipment.  The skills Agricultural Education students employ in this CDE are the same skills required by outdoor  power equipment technicians. The District 7 Small Engines CDE at Teays Valley H.S. @ 3:00 P.M. on April 8th. The State Small Engines CDE at OSU-ATI will take place on April 18th.
State Public Speaking CDE
    The extemporaneous public speaking CDE is designed to develop the ability of all FFA members to express themselves on a given subject without having prepared or rehearsed its content in advance, therefore causing FFA members to formulate their remarks for presentation in a very limited amount of time.  Jodi Roush is one of the top two members in the state in this category.  She will be recognized at the State FFA Convention with the final placing.  Congratulations Jodi!
 
Banquet Reminder
Don’t forget!!!
The Amanda-Clearcreek FFA Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday, May 17th at 4:00 P.M. in the cafetorium. All who receive this newsletter are welcome and ALL A-C FFA members are REQUIRED  to attend.    
For more information about the chapter, for pictures, and activities, lists of former officers, previous newsletters, etc., go to the chapter homepage at: www.acffa.org
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Last year’s State FFA Degree winners from our chapter: Kyle Kennedy, Kayla Notestone, Jodi Roush, & Judd Ellinger.