December of 2013

By: Katerina Sharp, Reporter

Next FFA Meeting

The next FFA meeting will be held on Monday, December 16^th at 7:00 P.M. in the Ag Center. The Greenhand Degree Ceremony will also be taking place during this meeting. The Ag. Challenge at the end of the meeting will be the feed bag hold, where one boy and one girl from each class will be timed on how long they can hold a bag of feed above their head. The two times will be added together and the class with the longest time will win. Rumor has it that the senior class will dominate this challenge, so good luck to each class!

Upcoming Events

Ag Breakfast: The monthly Ag. Breakfast will be held on Friday, December 6^th at 6:15 A.M. at Tee Jaye’s. All members are encouraged to attend, as this is one of the many fun activities that the chapter does where both good food and company are in attendance. Josh is very excited to eat breakfast with all 62 of the members who voted for Tee Jaye’s at the November Ag. Meeting!

Fruit Pick-up: The Ag. Center will be open after school on December 9^th, 10^th and 11^th from 3:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. for all FFA members who sold fruit to pick up their fruit orders. If anyone would still like to order fruit please contact Mr. Tilley ASAP at 740-969-7381.

Zoo Trip: The Columbus Zoo Trip will take place on Friday, December 20^th for all FFA members who sold 10 or more boxes or baskets of fruit. Mr. Sharp and Mr. Tilley will again be chaperoning this trip. Chapter members who are attending the trip to go see the lights at the zoo will be leave after school on Friday and will not be returning back until approximately

11:30 P.M. Members are reminded to bring money for food and to dress according to the weather.

State and American FFA Degrees: Any member who is interested in receiving their State or American FFA Degrees, please contact Mr. Tilley. The General Record Book, Community Service Book, and all SAE Books will need to be up-to-date.

Ag. Communications CDE: The Agricultural Communications Contest requires student knowledge and understanding of the various forms of communication within the industry of agriculture. Each chapter can take a team consisting of three members that must submit a 12 page written media plan. Each member of the team must then complete a journalism quiz and complete an editing exercise, using all proper AP style marks and laws. Each member of the team is then assigned to complete an individual practicum. This year’s practicum areas are radio broadcasting, poster design, and a press release. Following this, the team will present a project proposal. This year’s team consists of: Josie Montoney, Kaylee Reed, and Kayla Luft. The Ag Communications team will be competing Monday, November 25^th at the District 7 contest and then again on Saturday, December 7^th at the state contest. There is a lot of hard work and dedication required for this contest. Good luck to this year’s team!

Greenhand Quiz CDE: The Greenhand Quiz CDE tests students’ knowledge and history of the FFA. The contest consists of an online multiple-choice test dealing with past and present information about the FFA. Currently, a chapter may enter as many members as they would like, with the top four scores making-up the teams score. Any freshman member who is interested in this contest needs to sign-up in Mr. Tilley’s room and needs to plan on attending a meeting during Lunch A during the first week of December.

Holiday Food Drive: The Holiday Food Drive is a community service project run by the Amanda-Clearcreek FFA chapter and the Amanda Fire Department. FFA members went to both Amanda and Stoutsville to deliver bags to residents in November. Each bag had a note attached asking residents to donate non-perishable food items. Due to the weather and school being cancelled on Tuesday, November 26^th, the pick-up date for members has been moved to Tuesday, December 3^rd. Chapter members will be loading all of the bags onto the bus and taking them to the Ag. Center, where all of the food will be sorted and then repacked and taken to the Amanda Township Fire Department, who distributes the food throughout the community wherever needed.

St. Jude’s Fundraiser: On Saturday, December 7^th, chapter members who have signed up will be helping to sell Teddy Bears from J.B. Robinson Jewelers, located in the River Valley Mall. All funds will be sent to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. For every 14 bears sold, one child’s treatment will be completely paid for. Any members who has not yet signed up to help and wants to, sign up sheets are located in both Mr. Sharp’s and Mr. Tilley’s class rooms. There are three different shifts. The first shift will take place from 9:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. The second shift will take place from 12:00 P.M. until 3:00 P.M. and the third shift will take place from 3:00 P.M. until 6:00 P.M. This is a great community service activity and all members are encouraged to participate.

Past Happenings

State Ag. Issues Forum CDE: The Ag. Issues Forum team competed at Wilmington College in the State Contest on Saturday, November 9^th, where they placed 1^st in the State. The team consisted of: Katerina Sharp, Katie Krile, Devon Mullen, Kaylee Reed, and Susan Householder. The Ag. Issues Forum Career Development Event is a team contest made up of 3 to 7 people. The team must create a written ten-page portfolio and a presentation that is no more than 15 minutes long and present it to a minimum of three community groups, before presenting it to a panel of judges at the State contest. The judges have five minutes to ask topic related questions following the presentation. This year’s team chose Deep-Well Horizontal Fracturing as their topic. The team will continue to present their presentation to different community groups and businesses throughout the year, before competing at the National level against state winning teams from across the country. This will take place at the 87^th National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky next October. This year’s A-C FFA Ag. Issues Forum team has put an extreme amount of time and effort into this contest. Congratulations to the team and good look at Nationals!

National FFA Convention: This year’s 86^th National FFA Convention took place in Louisville, Kentucky from Wednesday, October 30^th to Saturday, November 2^nd. Our chapter attended the Opening Session of Convention, as well as the fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, and ninth sessions. Also on the trip, members had the opportunity to tour the Heatherbrook Farms, Big Bone Lick State Park, Louisville Stoneware, the Culbertson Home State Historic Site, the Schimpff’s Confectionery, and Huber’s Orchard, Winery & Vineyards. The FFA members to attend this trip from our chapter were: Katie Krile, Katerina Sharp, Rachel Stoneburner, Ben Slykerman, Kaylee Reed, Susan Householder, Josh Metzon, Hannah Robinson, Austin Stai, Devon Mullen, Emmy Hollar, Mary Smeltzer, Dylan Mullen, Adrian Wymer, Kayla Luft, Johnny Lemaster, Ashley Pritchard, Brianna Green, Sunny Drake, Katy Hoyd, Kelsie Adkins, AJ Wymer, Mallory Seitz, Carlie Krile, Keeton Baldwin, Ashley Eveland, Cody Roark, Jesse Schooley, Mitch Cassley, Austin Smith, and Nick Minnard. The chapter would like to send out a big thank you to Brittany Pinkstock and Mr. Stimmel, who helped chaperone this trip. Brittany is a member of the A-C FFA Alumni and Mr. Stimmel is an OSU student who will be student teaching for Mr. Sharp this year. This trip would not have been possible without their help. Thank you!!!

State FFA Officer Leadership Night: Again this year, our FFA Chapter hosted a State Officer Leadership Night at the Amanda-Clearcreek High School for A-C FFA chapter members, as well as other chapters from the central Ohio area. Our FFA chapter has hosted a State Officer Leadership Night every year since 1999. This event took place on Wednesday, November 20^th at 6:00 P.M. There were 331 total FFA members from the 13 schools and 7 State FFA Officers in attendance. This is by far the largest in the state.