Hog Roast

The Hog Roast is right around the corner on November 4th. In the fall of each year, the Amanda-Clearcreek FFA Chapter holds it's annual chapter Hog Roast. At the A-C FFA Hog Roast, the chapter provides the roasted hog, drinks and rolls while every FFA member and their families are invited to bring a covered dish, with the freshmen, sophomores and juniors bringing a dinner item and seniors bringing a dessert item. This is an excellent way to show your parents what the FFA is all about and what we do in our organization. The Hog Roast is always an enjoyable social event for our chapter members, their families and our community supporters. All who receive this letter are invited to come to this event. Please make sure everyone brings their own table settings (plates, silverware). Those who receive this newsletter who do not have a son or daughter in FFA are also invited to the Hog Roast. Please bring a food item to share.

Monthly Chapter Meeting

The monthly chapter meeting well be held on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 7:00 P.M. in the Ag. Center. Members are required to attend and stay until the Ag. Challenge is done. The Ag. Challenge is the Pizza eating contest. During this contest there are 2 girls and 2 boys from each grade that sit down and eat a pizza, full of Mr. Tilley and Mr. Sharps wonders!

*Fair Results*

Members of the Amanda-Clearcreek FFA are active at the Fairfield County Fair, held annually in October. Each year, members set-up a booth in the fair's FFA building where they display such projects as: electrical wiring projects, tree identification scrapbooks, woodworking projects and welding projects,. Members also have the opportunity to exhibit other projects, such as market hogs, breeding rabbits, dairy feeder calves, goats, etc. The Fairfield County Fair was held from October 11th through 17th this year. We had approximately 84 members either entering their animals, welding, leaf scrapbooks, wood working projects or electric projects at the fair this year. Brittany Stevens placed 1st place rate of gain with market wether, 2nd place showmanship market/meat goat, 3rd place showman of showman market/meat goat,2nd place 1 year and older milker/dairy goat, 3rd place senior kid/dairy goat, resevere champion junior doe pygmy goat, 2nd place junior doe 12-24 month pygmy goat, 3rd place senior doe 2-3 year old pygmy goat and 4th place senior doe over 3 years old pygmy goat. Sierra Jepsen placed 1st in her feeder steer and 3rd overall, Cheyenne Jepsen placed 1st in her class and received grand champion with her feeder heifer. Tyler VanHorn placed 5th in senior showmanship market/meat goat, 2nd place in showman or showman market/meat goat, 5th place doe kid, 1st place doe kid and junior reserve champion doe kid. Taylor Mets placed 6th in his barrow hog class. C.J. Mets placed 5th in his gilt hog class along with 4th place in showmanship. The following people received trophies for their small projects: Sara Russ - leaf book, Brianna Parrish - woodworking, John Wampler - electric and Kaleb Miller - welding projects.

Holiday Food Drive

The Holiday Food Drive is a project between our FFA chapter and the Amanda Fire Department. Our members deliver paper bags to residents in Amanda and Stoutsville. The bags have a note on them that ask people to donate any non-perishable food items. About a week later, the FFA members take time pick-up the bags. Later, FFA members deliver the non-perishable items to the Amanda Township Fire Department. The fire department then distributes the food to needy families in the community. The bag drop off around town is on November 19th. The pick up day for those are on November 24th.

District Ag Communications (new team)

The Agricultural Communications CDE tests student knowledge and understanding of the various forms of communication within the industry of agriculture. Ohio started participating in this contest in the Fall of 2000 with a pilot contest. Initially, a chapter was able to enter a team consisting of four members, each taking a multiple choice test, completing an editing exercise, completing individual practicums such as, newscast, news release, broadcast and graphic design. For the 2005-2006 school year, a fifth person was added to the team, web design. The 2009-2010 team consist of Sara Russ, Caitlin Robinson, Kayla Porter, John Miller and Daniel Quincel. With our teams winning the state 5 times since 2000 and placing in the top five every other year but one, we expect good things from this team as well. The District CDE date is November 10th.

State Officer Leadership Night

For many years, our FFA Chapter has hosted 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 in the state meet to learn better leadership skills, while having a good time. 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. All members are encouraged to attend on November 18th at 6 P.M.

Ag Breakfast

Ag breakfast this month will be held at Tee Jaye’s at 6:15 A.M. on November 5th. We hope every one attends and has a great time!

National FFA Convention

The National FFA Convention is an annual convention of FFA members from around the nation and abroad. It is the largest youth convention in the country. The National FFA Convention was held in Kansas City, Missouri from 1928 to 1998. It was held in Louisville, Kentucky from 1999 until 2005. The convention is now held in Indianapolis, Indiana. During the National FFA Convention, a member can attend many sessions with thousands of other FFA members from all fifty states plus Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. During each session, the current national FFA officers will give knowledgeable and inspiring speeches. During the final session, you will be able to witness the installation of the new national FFA officers, which is always an exciting time. The Career Show is filled with booths from companies such as: Ford, John Deere, NASA, Dewalt, most state FFA associations and many others.

The convention ran from Oct. 21st through the 24th. During the 4 days at National Convention, members participate in several activities. This year, those who attended toured Alpaca Heatherbrook Farms, went to the Career Show, attend opening session, fourth session, the seventh session, and the ninth session, toured English’s Buffalo Farm, toured Kelsay Dairy Farm, participated in a leadership work shop and attended the Toby Keith Concert. This year we had 30 members attend, including the Ag. Comm. team and Jodi Roush. Jodi Roush received her American FFA Degree. Along with the Ag Comm. team placing 8th and receiving a Gold Rating, this was the 5th time for a National team in this contest, before are participates placed 3rd, 4th, 4th, and 15th. This years team consisted of Hannah Chenetski, Sarah Vannoy, Emily Cordle, Kelsie Sharp and Andrea Hollett. Sarah was 36th in the nation, with a gold rating, all others received silver ratings. The National Ag. Comm. scheduled its own section with contest description, history and this years results. The Chapter wanted to give a big thanks to Mr. Mike Miller for chaperoning the trip once again this year. Thank you! “What was your favorite thing about Convention this year, everything, even the sessions were fun,” states Nate Seitz.

The Amanda-Clearcreek FFA Ag. Communications team placed eighth in the nation on Friday, October 23rd. The team consisted of Hannah Chenetski, Kelsie Sharp, Andrea Hollett, Emily Cordle and Sarah Vannoy. Sarah placed 36th in the Nation individually and earned a gold rating. Hannah, Kelsie, Andrea and Emily all earned Silver ratings. This is the fourth time in the last ten years that our chapter has placed in the top ten in the nation. This is one of the FFA is most challenging Career Development Events. In order to be able to compete at the national level a team had to win their respective state competition. There were Thirty-one teams that competed at this year is national contest making our 8th place finish very impressive. The contest consists of an eight page written project proposal with accompanying media materials, a fifteen-minute power point presentation delivered by the group, an editing exercise using the proper AP style editing marks and a written test on journalism knowledge. In addition each member also has to complete their own individual practicum exercise consisting of the following; news writing, news release, 2-minute radio broadcast, 2-page graphic design and a 3-page web design layout.

Congratulations to Hannah, Kelsie, Andrea, Emily and Sarah for representing not only our school and Chapter so well but also the State of Ohio.

Fall Flower Bulb Sale

The Fall Flower Bulb Sale is a small fund raising activity that has been intermittently 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 member who earned them to help pay for the National FFA Convention trip, purchase an FFA Jacket or for other costs a member might incur through FFA activities. All flower bulbs are 6 dollars, no matter the amount of bulbs in the package. Therefore, every package of bulbs you sell, you earn 3 dollars toward any activity or jacket you want to purchase. The Fall Flower Bulb Sale ended on October 7th. The top seller was Nate Seitz with 51 orders and Sabrina Friend with 34 orders. See any FFA member in the spring to order flower bulbs.

Trap Shoot

The Amanda- Clearcreek FFA Chapter wanted to give a big thanks to Lonnie & Barb Green for hosting the annual fall trap shoot again this year. Starting in the 1990's, the chapter has sponsored an annual Chapter Trap Shoot in the Fall. In recent years, Lonnie and Barb Green have hosted this event. This activity provides an opportunity for members to learn about firearm safety and enjoy testing their accuracy at shooting at clay pigeons. Many members, their parents and past members normally attend this October activity. Members can just shoot for fun or compete for various door prizes provided by the chapter or other sponsors. Normally, this activity is held on a Sunday afternoon and a cookout-style lunch is provided by the chapter and the Greens. The chapter Trap Shoot was at the Green’s residence on Sunday, Oct. 18th starting at 1:00 P.M. Thanks you again Lonnie and Barb Green for letting us host this activity at your house. The FFA chapter also wanted to give a huge thank you to OHIO VALLEY OUTDOORS for sponsoring almost all of the prizes for this activity. The members who attended this year include: Colton Kougher, Jacob Miller, Andrea Hollett, Evin Tipple, Kody Jackson, Samantha Thompson, Cody Epley, Sarah Vonnoy, Jamie Luck, Cheyenne McCall and Dustin Merritt. David Sams was an alumni member that attended also.

Fruit Sale

As with most FFA chapters, the Amanda-Clearcreek FFA sells bulk fruit as a fund raiser each year. This annual fruit sale takes place each Fall. The fall fruit sale is the biggest fundraising activity that the FFA Chapter does. The fruit sale has grown substantially over the years, with the chapter members routinely selling over 1,500 boxes and baskets of fruit annually. Also, the sales offerings have grown, with the chapter now offering 24 different fruit products. The fruit sale pays for the large majority of the chapter's activities, such as field trips, bus fuel and awards. As you can see, this is a very important fundraiser for our chapter. Therefore, if the chapter could have everyone sell at least 10 box/baskets of fruit our chapter would be in good shape! The fruit sale started Friday, October 9th. Please see any FFA member to order or call the Ag Ed. Dept. at 969-7381 and leave a message if you have not already. An FFA member will be in contact with you. All orders must be prepaid this year. All FFA members will have a receipt book this year, so please don’t pay for fruit without receiving a receipt. The Amanda Clearcreek FFA Chapter has to have a good sale this year, therefore, get out there and ask people! If you sell 25 or more boxes you can go to the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky. You also have to sell at least 5 boxes this year to attend the Zoo Trip in December.

By: A-C FFA Reporter

Brittany Stevens