Tarlton Fish Fry

Since 2002, the Amanda-Clearcreek FFA chapter has volunteered at the Tarlton Fish Fry. Every year the Firemen put on an annual fish fry as a fund raiser. This Fish Fry is open to anyone in the community that would like to enjoy a good sit down all-you-can eat fish meal! The FFA members help out by seating, serving and assisting the people that come. There were 23 members that volunteered at the Tarlton Fish Fry.

Ag. Breakfast

Ag. Breakfast was held on Monday, June 3rd at Goodwins in Circleville @ 8:30 A.M. On Monday, July 1st Ag. Breakfast was held at Bob Evans in Circleville. On Tuesday, August 3rd breakfast was held at IHOP in Lancaster. Ag. Breakfast is held once a month and is open to all members. The September Ag. Breakfast was held at Tee Jaye’s and the October Ag. Breakfast will be held at Tee Jaye’s at 6:15 A.M on Thursday the 7th.

Cross Mound Park Clean-Up

On Thursday, July 1st at 11:00 A.M., FFA members performed general clean-up, repair of the fence around the mound and cleared the trails of debris. Currently the park is closed and will remain closed until the vandalism decreases. Most of the vandalism that happens are spray paint or benches, shelter houses and signs. Vandials have also torn down fences and signs. The chapter does what it can to make the park look nice in hopes that one day the park will reopen to the public.

Canoe Trip

On July 6th, members canoed at the Hocking River. Every year the chapter takes its annual canoe trip. The chapter had 31 members attend the annual canoe trip.

Ohio Cattleman & Poultry Association Food Booth

On July 2nd, members went up to the Ohio State Fair and served food at these two food booths. This serves as one of the community projects that our chapter participates in throughout the year. These two commodity groups use the money they raise to promote and support their respective industries. The chapter had 20 members volunteer at the Ohio Cattleman & Poultry Association Food Booth.

Trap Shoot

Summer trap shoot was held on August 3rd at Mr. Sharps house at 5:00 P.M. Students, parents and alumni were all invited to have a good time! Our annual Fall Trap Shoot will be held in early October, most likely on Sunday, October 17th.

Washington Leadership Conference (WLC)

WLC is a week long conference that is held in Washington D.C. where FFA leaders from the country have the opportunity to go to our nation’s capitol while learning leadership skills so they can bring back those qualities to there home chapter. Those attending are chosen through an application and an interview process that is done by alumni members and members that have attended WLC. The two that are chosen are awarded an all-expense paid scholarship at the chapter banquet and have proven that they possess the characteristics of future chapter leaders.

The conference is led by past state and national FFA officers who are currently in college. There are usually 5 to 6 people who work with the FFA members to improve their leadership skills that will prepare them for future careers. This is done in workshops that involves everyone in the conference, usually in small groups. Hannah said, “ It was a great experience that I know Cheyenne and I will both treasure for the rest of our lives and the community service project was a great experience as well!”

When the FFA members have to eventually depart from the Washington Leadership Conference, they know that are taking home leadership qualities and great memories. The experiences that are learned will be brought back to the home chapter to teach other FFA members how to be come better leaders. The WLC is for any member that wishes to better there leadership skills. Members who attended this year were: Hannah Chenetski and Cheyenne Jepsen.

Farm Science Review

Every year the annual Farm Science Review is held in London, Ohio. The review shows farmers and others interested in agriculture what hew products developments have appeared in the past year. Farm and construction equipment innovations and demonstrations generally attract the most interest to those attending, from the 1-1/2 horse power small engines used in the industry to the 400 horsepower tractors. Everyone in the FFA chapter is able to attend. This year the chapter sent 89 members.

Pelotonia Bike Tour

This is a bike tour that took place from Columbus to Athens this year. This is a fundraiser to collect money for cancer research. The bike tour was sponsored by The James Cancer Center. Over 4 million dollars was collected this year by over 4,000 riders that have participated this year. For the second year in a row, Amanda has been used as their stop for lunch, on August 21st and August 22nd. On those 2 days, FFA members helped direct traffic, put bikes away, greet riders and even cheer them on as they went by. This year, the Ohio State FFA Officers also helped with the bike tour and some of the officers also stayed with the A-C officers or the assistant officers if they were helping the second day of the tour. This is a huge honor for Amanda to be a part of this tour for the second year in a row.

Ice Cream Social

Last year, the officer team came up with a new idea to hold an Ice Cream Social at the beginning of the year to help freshmen get involved. It worked so well last year that we have decided to make this an annual activity. The Ice Cream Social was held on September 8th at 7 P.M. all members were invited. There were 103 members that attended. Several parents of new members parents were also in attendance.

Fruit Sale

The Fruit sale will begin in October. All orders are prepaid and every member will have a receipt book that they will have to keep with them. This is a large fundraiser that the chapter holds and we encourage all members to participate. The fruit will be delivered by early December. If anyone would like to buy some fruit please contact Mr. Jeff Tilley at (740) 969-7381.

Mark Your Calendars

The Hog Roast is coming up on November 10th at 6 P.M. Hope to see you there!!

Fall Flower Bulb Sale

This fundraiser like all the other fundraisers gives the members a chance to offset the cost of the upcoming activities and purchase their jacket/clothing. This sale has started and all orders are due October 5th and must be prepaid.

Sorry So Late

The newsletter this month is a little late, due to adding in new addresses to the program. The program for the newsletter was also down, so I was unable to work on it. The September and October newsletter are being combined into the Fall newsletter.

County Fair

Members of the Amanda-Clearcreek FFA are active in the Fairfield County Fair, the last in the state, held annually in October. Every year, members set-up a booth in the fair’s FFA building where they display projects such as: electrical wiring projects, tree identification scrapbooks, woodworking projects, welding beads, grains and hay projects. Members are also have the opportunity to exhibit other projects at the fair as well. The Fairfield County Fair is going to be held from October 10th-16th.

CDE’s

Soils CDEs

The Rural Soils contest tests students knowledge and understanding of soils for agricultural usage. The contest consists of a test and the judging of four soil pits. The chapter may enter up to four team members and the district contest is held in a different county each year. The top three scores from the team make up the team score. Members on the team include: Sierra Jepsen, Cheyenne Jepsen and Josh Hampshire.

The Urban Soils contest test students knowledge and understanding of soils for urban usage. This contest was established in Ohio in 1977. The contest consists of a test and the judging of four soil pits. The district contest is held in a different county each year and a chapter may enter up to four team members. The top three scores making-up the team score. A team must place in the top five in the district to move on to state, where only four members comprise the team. The district contest is on September 28th. Members on the team include: Jon Wampler, Nick Brumfield, Jacquelyn Gibson, and Tyler Garee.

Forestry CDE

The Forestry contest tests students knowledge and understanding of the forestry industry. This contest includes a multiple-choice general knowledge test, tree species identification, tool identification and various practicums such as timber cruising, map reading, etc. A chapter may enter up to eight team members, with the top three scores making-up the team score, at the state level. The state contest will be held Saturday, October 2nd. Members who are participating this are: Camron Drake, Aaron Miller, Ryan Mundy, Josh Hampshire, Jared Dilley, Michael Hite and Aaron Fletcher.

National FFA Convention

The National FFA Convention is an annual convention of FFA members from around the nation and it is the largest youth convention in the country. The National FFA Convention has been held in Kansas City, Missouri, Louisville, Kentucky and now it is currently held in Indianapolis, Indiana. During the convention the chapter will attend many sessions with thousands of other FFA members from fifty states plus Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. During the sessions some of the national FFA officers will give knowledgeable and inspiring speeches. In the last session, thousands of FFA members will witness the installation of the new national FFA officers. There is also plenty of free time for members to visit the Career Show and time to just relax back at the camp site. Not only do we attend sessions, but there is also tours that we do such as touring a Dairy Farm, Not Just Popcorn, Buffalo Farm, etc. There is usually a dance just for FFA members from Ohio called the Buckeye Bash, where everyone from Ohio has fun dancing and everyone is wearing Ohio State clothes. This year, the convention is from Oct. 20th - 23rd. Members who are interested need to speak to Mr. Tilley ASAP.

COLT Conference

On Wednesday, September 8th two officers and four assistant officers attended the COLT (Chapter Officer Leadership Training) conference. This conference was about how to bring leadership back to your chapter. The guest speaker was Kelly Barns who talked to all the FFA members, including the State officers who also helped him with demonstration or even joined-in in some groups. At the end of the conference, our state representatives spoke at the conference briefly about how we, as FFA members, are the future of tomorrow and how we have to keep this program alive. After the conference, we met with Gerald Stebelton to inform him about FFA, answered questions he had and we talked about the state budget as well. The members that attended the COLT Conference were: Andrea Hollett, Nate Seitz, Reba Hyme, Catelin Robinson, Sierra Jepsen and John Miller.

Greenhouse

Some of you might have noticed a new addition to the school grounds. The greenhouse you see was given to the Ag. Department by SCI. It has been a long process in setting up the greenhouse because we had few directions on how to build it. Students along with Mr. Sharp and Mr. Tilley have been working on the Greenhouse on weekends and after school. The Ag. Ed. Dept. has put very little money into building this Greenhouse except to replace minor parts that cost little to no money.

Regional CDE Win

Last year our Environmental & Natural Resources team competed at the State level. The members consisted of Tyler Genders, Aaron Miller, Alex Norris and Nick Brumfield. The team placed 2nd in the state, which qualified them for the Regional competition. Unfortunately, Tyler was not able to compete at the Regional competition due to his commitment to playing football in Indiana. Mike Hite was chosen to replace Tyler because he had been on the Nature Interpretation team that had placed in the top 5.

This contest consists of four members working together and individually to solve problems and to perform tasks related to natural resources management. The students were required to complete the following: a written test, identification of wildlife and other animals, water analysis, soil analysis, environmental analysis, the writing of a news release and the development of a management plan for a provided scenario.

This contest was held on September 18th in Springfield, Massachusetts. Our team placed 1st at the Regional contest which was held at the Eastern States Exposition, also known as the ‘Big E’. Alex Norris placed - 1st, Mike Hite placed - 4th, Nick Brumfield placed - 8th and Aaron Miller placed - 9th!!! The total points combined for our team was 2127 out of 2700 possible points and the second place team received a total of 1978 out of 2700 possible points. Not only did our team compete admirably, but other teams from Ohio competed great as well. Ohio took home a banner with the most wins in CDE’s at the Big E!! Congratulations Alex, Mike, Nick and Aaron on a great win were all proud of you!!

By: Andrea Hollett

Reporter