Amanda-Clearcreek FFA News
March, 2023
by Haley Robinson, Reporter
Next FFA Meeting
The next A-C FFA meeting will be held on Monday, March 20th at 7 pm in the Ag Center. The Ag challenge for this meeting is tug of war. Classes will have both male and female teams with each team having up to five members. The Freshmen girls vs. Sophomore girls, Junior girls vs. Senior girls - with the winning teams competing for the championship. The Freshmen boys vs. Sophomore boys, Junior boys vs. Senior boys - with the winning teams competing for the championship.
Upcoming Events
Contests
General Livestock CDE: The General Livestock Judging CDE focuses on members' abilities to judge the four main meat animals: beef cattle, swine, sheep, and goats. Students will be split into groups with each getting a specific class to judge. Members will have to rank the animals in order from best to worst and then answer questions pertaining to certain criteria. They will also have to take a written test, which will cover areas like pedigrees, gestation periods, carcass weight, calculations, breeding charts, etc. The team is made up of Rylyn Foster, Braeleigh Blosser, Boston Fowler, Emma Strickler, and Colton Westhoven. Allie Poston, a former A-C FFA member and former participant in the contest, is helping coach the team again this year. The team will be competing in two invitational contests: Marysville on March 4th and Miami Trace on March 11th, before competing at the state contest on April 28th at the Ohio State Fairgrounds.
Ag Mechanic Skills CDE: This contest consists of 3 members who must demonstrate multiple mechanical tasks pertaining to welding, brazing, and electrical wiring amongst others. The top two district teams then advance to the state level. Our team this year consisting of Autumn Parry, Henry Poor, and Reed West will be competing in the district contest on March 16th at Teays Valley High School.
Nature Interpretation CDE: The Nature Interpretation CDE team has also been preparing for their upcoming contests, which are the Marysville Invitational on March 4th and the Miami Trace Invitational on March 11th. The state contest will be held at the Ohio State Fairgrounds on April 1st. The Nature Interpretation team is made up of Catilin Elia, Katie Farmer, Madelyn Matheny, Morgan Smith, Josie Speakman, Jaycie Spires, and Katelynn Workman. Mr. Tilley has been helping to prepare the team for their contest. They will be tested over their knowledge of tool ID, mammal pelt ID, mammal skull ID, reptiles, amphibians, and non-woody plants in the form of a written test, pictures, and the actual items. In addition to those items, they will also have two practicums to complete, which are identifying songbird calls and amphibian sounds.
Equine Management CDE: Equine Management, which focuses on horses, is another of the Spring Skills Contests to find members who have a background information pertaining to the contest already. Megan Bosch is the only member competing in this contest this year. She will participate in the Marysville Invitational on March 4th and Miami Trace on March 11th, followed by the state competition on March 25th.
Past Happenings
Greenhand Quiz CDE
Last month, our chapter’s Greenhand Quiz CDE team placed 12th in the State of Ohio in the Greenhand Quiz Career Development Event. Our team consisted of Emma Strickler, Abbie Leddingham, Catherine Buckley, Chase Hanna, Hayden Dunn, Mason Jones, Maddie Matheny, and Addie Singleton. Emma Strickler, placed 1st in the state contest individually for the first time in Amanda-Clearcreek FFA history. There were over 3,000 members who took this test, which makes this an incredible accomplishment. The contest is an online test where participants are tested on their knowledge about FFA’s history and facts. The questions range anywhere from asking how many bolts of corduroy it takes to make an FFA jacket, to past and present FFA National Officer Teams, to who wrote the National FFA Creed. This is an extremely difficult test to study for because of the vast amount of potential information. Congratulations on a job well done.
Ag Breakfast
On March 3rd, the chapter held its monthly Ag Breakfast at IHOP. The event happens before school and gives members a chance to eat, socialize, and have a good time while also earning bonus points.
February Meeting, Officer Elections!
On February 13, the monthly FFA meeting was at 7 pm in the cafeteria. During this meeting the 2023-2024 FFA officer team was elected. There were 7 candidates, each of which had to submit an application, go through an interview, and make a short speech to present to the chapter before the elections. The 2023-2024 officer team for the Amanda-Clearcreek FFA Chapter is:
President- Peter Smith
Vice-President- Caidyn Garee
Secretary- Maddie Cordle
Treasurer- Rylyn Foster
Reporter- Haley Robinson
Sentinel- Travis Spence
Student Advisor- Braeleigh Blosser
There was no Ag challenge at this meeting due to the length of the meeting already.
Public Speaking CDEs
There are four areas in which chapters can bring members to compete in for the Public Speaking contest: Creed Speaking, Beginning Prepared Speaking, Senior Prepared Speaking, and Extemporaneous Speaking. Emma Strickler competed in the Creed Speaking Contest, where she placed 2nd in the Fairfield County contest, 1st in the district 7 contest and 3rd in the state of Ohio. For this contest she had to memorize the National FFA Creed, written by E.M. Tiffany. Madison Cordle placed 1st in the county at Beginning Prepared contest and 3rd at Districts. In this speaking CDE area, Madison had to write a 5 to 7 minute long speech about an agricultural topic and memorize it. Madelyn Anderson placed 1st in the county, 1st in districts and 2nd at the state contest for Extemporaneous Speaking. For this contest competitors draw a random Ag related topic and get 30 minutes to write a 4 to 6 minute speech, then present it to the judges. Hannah Saum competed in the Senior Prepared category in which she placed 1st in the county, 1st at districts, and 4th in the State of Ohio. Hannah also had to write a 6 to 8 minute speech and present it. With all these accomplishments our members were the only in the state of Ohio to have 3 participants make it to the state level contest as well as to the state finals. Congratulations girls!
Agricultural Communications CDE
The 4 members that competed in this contest were Hannah Saum, Emily Buckley, Jillian Bennet, and Riley Mckeska. For this career development event teams played the role of communications consultants and developed a media plan for an assigned scenario. The scenario identifies a client with a communications need and a budget. Members are also required to take a journalism test and well as complete an editing exercise using AP style editing. In addition team members had to each complete an individual practicum consisting of making a website with Wordpress, creating a 60 second promotional video using Adobe Rush, writing a news release as well as writing a letter to the editor. The team competed on February 4th at the state competition at the Ohio State university placing 1st overall as a team in the State of Ohio. Emily Buckley placed 2nd individually overall as well. This is the 10th time our chapter Ag Communications teams has won the state competition in this particular CDE area. The team will be representing Ohio at the National Convention again next fall. Congratulations on all your hard work!
Top Fall Fundraiser Trip
In February members attended the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky. The students that were eligible to attend sold 25 boxes or more of fruit or snacks during the annual Fall Fruit and Snacks Sale last Fall. We had 18 FFA members attend this trip, along with Mr.Tilley, Mr.Sharp, and Mr. Arnott. As well as 4 other adult chaperones, John McCormick, Robin Saum, Katerina Sharp, and Ben Blosser. The members who attended this trip where: Catherine Buckley, Maddie Cordle, Rylyn Foster, Savanna Holley, Bailey McKeska, Riley Mckeska, Haley Robinson, Hannah Saum, Emma Strickler, Luke Anderson, Brandt Blosser, Drew Dossman, Hayden Dunn, Dylan Dyer, Caidyn Garee, Mason Jones, Cody McCormick, and Peter Smith. Although the main focus of the trip was to attend the National Truck and Tractor Pulls and the National Farm Machinery Show, the attending members also got to go to many other places. They toured the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum, Frazier History Museum and were also able to go to the mall and Malibu Jack’s Event Center. On the way home they stopped at Jungle Jim’s International Food Market in Cincinnati.
National FFA Week
This year we celebrated National FFA week from February 27th to March 3rd, as we were only in school for 3 days when FFA week is typically celebrated. Members were able to take part in dress up days and other activities to celebrate the week.
Monday- FFA Shirt Day
Tuesday- Degree and Cream Day (if they earned a degree they got ice cream)
Wednesday- FFA Jacket/ Official Dress (Teacher appreciation lunch)
Thursday-Rodeo/Western/Farm Wear Day
Friday- Patriotic Day (Game Night)
