Sub-district Competition

The mission of the National FFA Organization is to "develop students' potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education." One way this mission is carried out is through Career Development Events. Better known as CDEs, they present an opportunity for students to learn skills that they will use throughout their lives- even if they no longer revolve around the agricultural industry.

The main events at the sub-district level include prepared public speaking, parliamentary procedure, extemporaneous public speaking, creed, and tractor driving. In the prepared public speaking event, a student researches a subject extensively and memorizes a hand written speech to recite for a judging panel. In parliamentary procedure, a team must hold a mock meeting and conduct business while debating and keeping notes and order. The extemporaneous speaking event gives a student a random topic in which they must come up with a speech in thirty minutes to recite convincingly to judges. In the creed event only open to Freshmen, a student must memorize the FFA creed and recite it to judges with full understanding of what the organization stands for. Finally, tractor driving participants must learn tractor safety rules and operate the machinery in an obstacle course setting. 

All Career Development events are designed to teach lifelong skills to students and the National FFA Organization wishes to create future leaders who use these skills to the fullest. Public speaking competitions such as prepared, extemporaneous, creed, and even parliamentary procedure get students to think about how best to present oneself and the importance of word choice and clarity towards communication. Tractor driving emphasizes safety, knowing the machinery you use, and how to operate a vehicle. Parliamentary procedure further demonstrates how to equally include the minority and majority of an opinion.

So without further ado, the winners of the 2014 Sub-district Competition:

1st place Prepared Public Speaking- Kellie Zambito

1st place Extemporaneous Public Speaking- Alexis Yahre

1st place Creed Speaking- Nicole Ramrazzatto

1st place Parliamentary Procedure- Kellie Zambito, Cassidy Hampton, Emily Casper, Zoe Wallace, Amanda Walther, and Alex Brockhum

3rd place Tractor Operations- Amanda Walther

Also, Kellie Zambito was elected as Sub-district chairman. 

Congratulations!!!

Baked Goods and Poinsettia Sale

 From handing out donuts at club meetings or holding chapter parties to the end of the year banquet, funds play a large role in making chapter events what they are. As a chapter, the reasoning for anything we do is that it goes back to the members and community. To continue this support, we must act like most organizations and hold fundraisers. 

For this fundraising venture, Alumni and chapter members worked together at two locations. On Saturday, officers split up into two groups. One group was to sell baked goods and poinsettias at the Avalon horse show. The second group sold poinsettias and water bottles at the Lake Park Craft Festival. Sitting under a tent all day was surprisingly exhausting, and  we thank everyone who donated money, purchased goods, and donated the water bottles. We also thank members and parents who continued to work at Lake Park on Sunday and for the support of the community.