Highland County commissioners, area students observe National FFA Week

Highland County commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades were joined by representatives from four of the five Highland County FFA chapters Wednesday, Feb. 25, as commissioners issued a proclamation in honor of National FFA Week.

This year’s observance runs from Feb. 21-28. According to the National FFA Organization, “Each year, FFA chapters around the country celebrate National FFA Week. It’s a time to share what FFA is and the impact it has on members every day.”

Accepting the proclamation were Hillsboro-Great Oaks FFA member Grace Allen; Lynchburg-Clay FFA members Ashton Bain, Wyatt Osborn and Gage Thompson; McClain FFA members Maguire Ross and Toree Wareikis; and Mowrystown FFA members Marley Gobin and Sydney Shelton.

Daniels observed the occasion by wearing his FFA jacket, while fellow FFA alum Britton joked, “I cannot get in mine.” 

Britton invited the group to discuss the activities their chapters have planned in honor of the special week.

“We're doing different activities each day at lunch to promote agriculture education to people that are not in FFA,” Gobin said. “We’re also promoting it to our teachers, and we have a little activity for them to do each day so they kind of understand some of like the contest that we have to miss class for sometimes, so that they understand why we're not there sometimes.

“On Friday, we're doing our Ag Olympics, which is basically where each grade level participates in different ag-related games during an assembly, and then one team will win at the end, and they'll get a little prize. That kind of just gets everyone from the school involved in FFA Week.”

For McClain FFA, their week is particularly exciting because two of their members — Wareikis (swine production placement) and Avery Murphy (agricultural sales placement) — have been selected as Ohio FFA proficiency finalists, meaning they are among the top four students in the state for their respective supervised agricultural experiences (SAEs). Both members will be competing and recognized at the state convention this spring.

In addition, Wareikis added that seven members will earn their State Degrees and four will receive their American Degrees. 

“We kicked off FFA Week going to church and then going ice skating as a reward,” Wareikis said. “We have dress-up themes every single day, and if members participate in the themes, then their incentive is they get to go bowling on Friday after school.”

Ross said that the McClain FFA chapter is also using this week to draw more interest in the chapter with junior high students.

“[Thursday] we'll be holding our eighth grade recruitment event, because we think it's super important to go and recruit the next gen of agriculture, especially if they're going in not really knowing what FFA is about, what agriculture is,” she said. “We think this is a really valuable way to get them a little bit enlightened before they have scheduling for their freshman year.”

Allen told commissioners that Hillsboro FFA is working to get both teachers and students involved throughout the week.

“Something we like to do is we like to give back to our teachers, so [Thursday] we're holding our annual teacher lunch where we have FFA members come and they'll serve our teachers lunch,” she said. “We also like to hide little FFA emblems, or we do trivia questions during the lunches, and that gets our members involved with people who aren't in FFA, other high school students as well.”

Thompson said that Lynchburg-Clay’s chapter is hosting similar events for recruitment and community service as well as fun incentives.

“We started our week by going to Perfect North Slopes with all of our chapter members as a bonding activity,” he said. This past Sunday, we went to the Hollowtown Church of Christ near Lynchburg, and we served a breakfast and did a little meet and greet with that church. We do dress-up themes every day this week to promote agricultural awareness. 

“After this, we're going to go to our middle school and do an eighth grade recruitment, similar to what McClain was talking about, and then tomorrow, we're going to do a staff and teacher lunch to show our staff we care and get them involved in agriculture.”

Thompson added that FFA Week is recognized in the classroom as well at LCHS.

“During the week, in our actual classes, our teacher does a lot of history of agriculture and FFA,” he said. “We think that's important at Lynchburg. That way, we don't ever forget the history of agriculture, where we came from.”

After talking with the students, Britton read the proclamation and distributed copies to each chapter, as commissioners posed for photos with the group.

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