A-C FFA May Newsletter

 z Monthly Chapter Meeting z
The monthly chapter meeting is on Monday, May 12th at 7:00 P.M. in the Ag. Center.  The Ag. Challenge is Tug-Of-War, so bring your muscles.  Currently the freshman are holding a small lead over the juniors in the Ag. Challenge points.  Will the Juniors finally be dethroned?  Every point counts now.  For a look at the actual point standings, see Mr. Tilley or Mr. Sharp.
 
March of Dimes
    On April 20, 2008, in Chillicothe, members were 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. 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 4 years. The members that went this year are: D.J. McCoy, Damian Karcher, Cody Sharp, Josh Templeton, Chance McMaster, C.J. Mets, Ryan Mundy, Josh Hampshire, Titus Disbennett, Andrew Bennett, Jacob White, and J.D. Stover.
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.  On Monday, April 21st,  members cleaned our section.  The members that participated in this event are:  Aaron Miller, Ashlee Reynolds, Mike Hite, Curtis Hayes, Colton Kougher, Brock Rose, Cheyenne Jepsen, and Tyler Van Horn.
 
Officer Training
    On Thursday, April 17, 2008, officers and assistant officers attended the District 7 Officer Training Conference at Lancaster High School.  This was an excellent opportunity for our officers to learn more about their respective offices and gain valuable leadership skills.  The speaker was  Ron Ramey, a former FFA advisor at Lancaster High School.  The officers and assistants that attended were: Ray Spence, Cheyenne Jepsen, Josh Cordle, Aaron Miller, and David Sams.
State Aquarium Management
    This CDE has everything to do with managing fresh and salt water aquariums, identifying fish, including many practicums like measuring pH, and taking a written test. Members that participated this year were: Mike Hite, Justin Strittmatter, Ryan Mundy, and Devin Picklesimer.  Congratulations as they got 9th in the State.  This is the third time our chapter has attempted this contest, but the first with a complete team.  This team was all freshman so big things are expected in the future.
State Animal Health
    This CDE helps prepare you to be a veterinarian. You take a written test and do many practicums on related activities.  The team consisting of Tyler Van Horn, Katie Beedy, Becca Bentz, and Lyndsey Alexander placed 14th in State.  Good Job!  This is also the third time our chapter has participated in this activity. 
Fundraiser Results
     This year the chapter sold over 700 flower bulb orders and had the highest mulch sale ever, with over 7,850 bags sold.  Brittany Pinkstock was the highest mulch seller with her brother, Dillon Pinkstock, coming in second. C.J. Broaddus was the highest flower bulb seller along with Ray Spence in second. Thank you to all the members that participated in these sales.  Also, thank you to everyone who purchased mulch or flower bulbs.  These are very important fundraisers and help the chapter in all the activities that our members are involved with.
 
Hocking College Field Days
      The members of the the Forestry team, the Nature Interpretation team, and the Wildlife Management team all participated in the Field Day at Hocking College.  Those members were: Scott Loudermilk, Josh Hampshire, Mike Hite, Kyle Klingler, Aaron Wortman, Bittany Pinkstock, Josh Cordle, David Sams, and Aaron Miller.  The experience helped members learn more about their respective CDEs.
State FFA Convention
    The Amanda-Clearcreek FFA attends the State FFA Convention annually. The State FFA Convention lasted two days this year, May 2nd & 3rd, at the State Fairgrounds and is made-up of five 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 that went Friday had four CDEs to choose from to participate in: Greenhand Quiz, Cooperative Education, Farm Business Management, and Ag. Engineering Technology. Also, they ate at Hometown Buffet and attended a dance later that night.  Saturday, the State winning Ag. Communications team was recognized as well as the State FFA Degree winners and the Officer Books of last year’s Reporter, Secretary, and Treasurer. Jodi Roush won the Extemporaneous Speaking CDE and the Organic Agriculture Proficiency Award!!!! Great Job Jodi!!!  The chapter was recognized by Children’s Hospital and recieved the Foundation Award.  Congratulations to all members on an outstanding State FFA Convention.
    Members that went to State Convention this year were: Lyndsey Alexander, Katie Beedy, Andrew Bennett, Becca Bentz, Hannah Chenetski, Josh Cordle, Ryan Davis, Garren Dilley, Titus Disbennett, Judd Ellinger, Erin Evans, Hayden Hamilton, Josh Hampshire, Jessika Harmon, Mike Hite, Andrea Hollett, Cheyenne Jepsen, Ed Johnson, Damian Karcher, Kyle Kennedy, Colton Kougher, Kendra Lama, Matt Lamb, Scott Loudermilk, Tara McCalla, Aaron Miller, Kaleb Miller, Ryan Mundy, Brittany Pinkstock, Dillon Pinkstock, Teran Pinkstock, Sara Russ, David Sams, Stacey Sams, Kelsie Sharp, Chris Sparkman, Ray Spence, J.D. Stover, Justin Strittmatter, Evin Tipple, Colleen Trapp, Tyler Van Horn, Jacob White, Aaron Wortman, and Anna Youssefi.
 
Top Fundraisers 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 is held in late May and consists of a 3-day, 2-night adventure.  This year they are going rafting and backpacking.  All members that are attending are reminded to get all the supplies you need.  Those members are: Cheyenne Jepsen, David Sams, C.J. Broaddus, Dillon Pinkstock, Brittany Pinkstock, Ray Spence, Alyssa Jenkins, Josh Hampshire, Scott Loudermilk, Ike Sowers, Joshua Cordle, Ryan Mundy, Andrea Hollett, and Brandon Bresler.
 
FFA Camp
Members need to turn in their camp forms by May 30th, 2007.  Sooner is better when turning these forms in, so please get them in.  Summer FFA Camp is a fun week where you stay at Ohio FFA Camp Muskingum.  You do many activities lead by our state officers and meet many new friends.  Although many people think the two dances are the highlights of the trip you can: shoot a rifle & shotgun at the ranges, archery, motor boats, canoeing, basketball, volleyball, high ropes, and much more.  If you ask Mr. Sharp the highlight of the trip is the food!  All members are encouraged to come and see what the FFA is all about.
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.
      All students are required to attend the banquet.  We encourage all members to bring their parents and family members to this pot luck banquet to share in the accomplishments of your friends and of the chapter throughout the past year.  As in previous years, we are asking that families of freshman, sophomore, and junior members bring a dinner item; families of senior members bring a dessert item.  Feel free to bring both.  Official dress is required for students who have their FFA jackets and nice dress for all other members.  Students should show pride in who you are and what you are a part of by representing the chapter well .    
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
 
State FFA Reporter
    To end this news letter, we’d like to congratulate Jodi Roush on completing a successful year as State FFA Reporter. In the history of our chapter, there have only been five other district or state officers, so Jodi has joined an elite list of successful leaders. Congratulations Jodi on a successful State FFA Convention and a successful term of office.