May of 2024
by Emma Strickler, Reporter
Next FFA Meeting
The next A-C FFA meeting will be held on Monday, May 20th at 7 p.m. in the Ag Center. This will be the last meeting for a while until school resumes in August. Traditionally, the assistant officers will be running the meeting in place of the regular officer team so that they can demonstrate their parliamentary procedure and leadership skills. Following the conclusion of the meeting, there will be a cookout, which is a great opportunity for members to socialize and eat good food.
Upcoming Events
Ag Breakfast: The May Ag Breakfast will take place on Friday, May 3rd at 6 a.m. at IHop in Lancaster. All members are encouraged to attend as it allows students to interact with their peers before the school day begins and eat a good breakfast!
Baby Animal Farm and Ag Day: As the end of the school year approaches, the A-C FFA Officer Team is preparing for its annual Baby Animal Farm and Ag-Day. Any member of the chapter who is interested in bringing in livestock and/or appropriate animals for the Baby Animal Farm may sign up to do so. All students K-12 at A-C can visit the Ag Shop to walk through the Baby Animal Farm. The officer team is also organizing our annual Ag-Day for third grade students at Amanda-Clearcreek. The Ag-Day includes a detailed explanation of all of the animals at the Baby Animal Farm, hands-on activities such as potting a plant and a cow milking simulation, a machinery display, a hayride and a sweet treat to wrap it all up. The officer team always has such a great time promoting agriculture to young students and teaching them about the world around them.
A-C FFA Chapter Awards Banquet: The annual Amanda-Clearcreek FFA Chapter Awards Banquet will take place on Saturday, May 11th at 4 p.m. in the high school cafeteria. The banquet is a recognition of all the hard work and success our chapter has had over the last year. All members are expected to attend the banquet. Members are also asked to wear official dress if they own a jacket and if not they may ask Mr. Tilley about getting a loaner jacket. Before the award recognition ceremony, a meal will be served and table service will be provided. Freshman, sophomores and juniors are asked to bring a covered dish and seniors are asked to bring a desert. This is a family event, so we would like to see all members bring their families to join us in a good meal and reflect on the great success of the Amanda-Clearcreek FFA Chapter! We will also be celebrating Morgan Anderson and all that she has done and accomplished this year as a national officer. Morgan will also be speaking at the banquet as well, which should be a treat for sure.
Spring Adopt-a-Highway Clean-Up: After school on Monday, May 20th, any A-C FFA member who is interested in earning community service hours may volunteer to help with the chapter’s Spring Adopt-a-Highway Clean-Up. The students will be picking up all the trash on the side of state route 159 between Tommy Waynes and Oakland. We have been doing the Adopt-A-Highway program for over 20 years now. With the help of many students, this should not be an extremely time consuming task and it is a great way to give back to the community!
State FFA Convention: The Ohio State FFA Convention will be held on May 2nd and 3rd in the Celeste Center on the Ohio State Fair Grounds. This year, our chapter will be recognized as a Gold rated Chapter. Three of our members will be earning their State FFA degree: Braeleigh Blosser, Carley Claypool and Peter Smith. Maddie Cordle will be recognized for her gold-rated Secretary’s book, Rylyn Foster will be recognized for her gold-rated Treasurer’s book and Haley Robinson will be recognized for her gold-rated Reporter’s scrapbook. The Amanda-Clearcreek Agricultural Communications team will be recognized for winning the state competition. Madelyn Anderson will be recognized for winning the state competition in the Job Interview Career Development Event. Emma Strickler will also be recognized for winning the state contest in the Beginning Prepared Public Speaking category. Additionally, our very own Morgan Anderson, who is currently serving as the National Eastern Region Vice President, will be the Keynote Speaker at the Third Session of the Ohio FFA Convention. This is an extremely high honor and we want to have a large turnout from our chapter for Morgan’s speech. We encourage all members to attend the Ohio State FFA Convention to join in recognizing our members for all of their accomplishments this year. It will be a great convention! Don’t miss out!
Top Spring Fundraiser’s Trip: At the end of May, our chapter will be sending our top 15 Spring fundraiser sellers on a camping trip to Dolly Sods, West Virginia. This trip will last from May 28th to the 30th. To attend, the top 15 sellers must have sold a minimum of 250 bags of mulch. While on the trip, members will be hiking through wilderness trails, backpacking, making dinner at the campsite and going whitewater rafting. These fun and educational activities can only happen if members do their part and participate in our fundraisers. Not only do these fundraisers lower the costs of trips, but they also contribute to the success of our chapter. We encourage everyone to do their part!
Upcoming Career Development Events
Agricultural Issues Forum CDE: The Agricultural Issues Forum state competition will be held on April 27th at the Ohio FFA Center. Our chapter’s team this year is made up of Julia Cowdrey, Hayden Dunn, Alayna Leppert, Ariana Norris and Haley Robinson. The team will give a 15 minute long presentation demonstrating their knowledge of any agricultural topic, followed by a series of questions. The team has been preparing since November for this competition and they have put in a lot of hard work and completed 19 different forums in preparation for this Saturday's CDE. Results of the team’s overall placing will be posted in the next newsletter. Best of luck to these members!
Meats Evaluation CDE: Also on April 27th is the state competition for the Meats Evaluation CDE. Our team this year includes Braeleigh Blosser, Catherine Buckley, Rylyn Foster, William Francis and Kara Johnson. The team has been preparing by studying carcasses and cuts of meat with a meat science graduate from the Ohio State University. Our team has also been practicing twice a week with Rod Francis, one of our alumni members. Thank you Rod for all of you hard work and dedication in preparing our team for the state contest. Best of luck to these members and results can be found in the next newsletter!
Past Happenings
Ag Breakfast: The April Ag Breakfast took place on Friday, April 5th at 6 a.m. at IHop in Lancaster. All who attended had a great time socializing with their peers and eating a good meal before school.
April FFA Meeting: The April meeting for our chapter was held on Monday, April 15th at 7 p.m. in the 3-12 Cafeteria. The Chapter conducted the regular business meeting and addressed the plans for the remainder of the school year. Following the adjournment of the meeting, the Ag Challenge was a volleyball tournament. The freshmen and sophomores both had a team of boys and girls to represent their grade level. The juniors and seniors combined to form one team. The overall placings were freshmen in 1st place, sophomores in 2nd place and the combined junior and senior team in 3rd place.
Pickaway County Community Ag Breakfast: The Amanda-Clearcreek FFA Chapter Officer Team was invited to attend the Pickaway County Community Ag Breakfast on April 10th at the Pickaway County Fairgrounds in Heritage Hall. Many other community members and businesses were also at the breakfast. The officer team had a great time getting to socialize before school and eat a good breakfast!
State Nature Interpretation CDE: On April 6th, our chapter sent members of the Nature Interpretation team to the state competition. The team consisted of: Kyann Jones, Morgan Smith, Jaycie Spires and Katelynn Workman. This contest required members to identify multiple different types of animals, plants and pieces of equipment through stations and a written test. Participants of this contest must also complete three practicums including animal call identification, reading nature signs and understanding of nature interpretation. Our team worked very hard preparing for the contest and placed 7th overall in the state of Ohio as a team. Also, Morgan Smith placed 3rd individually at the state level, which is a huge accomplishment. Congratulations to these individuals for all of their hard work and dedication!
State Wildlife Management CDE: Along with the Nature Interpretation team, the Wildlife Management team traveled to the state contest on April 6th. Our team this year consisted of Luke Anderson, Calum Duncan, Travis Spence and Maddix Tipple. This Career Development Event is similar to the Nature Interpretation CDE; however, Wildlife Management requires a wider range of identification of animals, plants and equipment. Additionally, participants must complete three practicums which includes reading topographical maps, determining age and sex of animals and controlling nuisance animals. The team placed 26th overall in the state of Ohio. Congratulations to these members for all of their hard work!
Smile!
2024-2025 Officer Team
Winners of the Volleyball Tournament
Pickaway County Community Ag Breakfast
May Calendar
May 2-3: Ohio State FFA Convention
May 11: A-C FFA Chapter Awards Banquet @ Amanda-Clearcreek High School
3-12 Cafeteria - 4 p.m.
May 17: Baby Animal Farm and Ag Day
Amanda-Clearcreek Graduation Ceremony @ Amanda-Clearcreek
High School - 7 p.m.
May 20: Spring Adopt-a-Highway Clean-Up
May FFA Meeting @ Ag Center - 7 p.m.
May 23: Last Day of School for Students
May 24: Last Day of School for Teachers
May 28-30: Top Spring Fundraiser’s Trip
