By: Reporters, Carter Manz and Jaylyn McCloud
The Paulding FFA Chapter has had a very fun and eventful year. Despite facing many unforeseen circumstances this last year with the continued pandemic, the chapter has found many new ways to still give back to the community and stay on track with our annual projects.
In January, The Paulding FFA started off the new year by putting the final touches on the state and American degrees applications as well as the officer books. In February, the FFA chapter held many events in honor of FFA week. They started off the week with a short ag quiz for a cookie, a cornhole tournament with the student body, the annual teacher appreciation lunch, and finished off the week with the annual Country Ag Olympics! In March, the chapter participated in the spring CDEs including equine judging and poultry judging.
In April, the chapter had their annual FFA banquet where they recognized the chapter’s accomplishments of the last year, elected new officers, and awarded community members for their support. The aquarium management team made up of Carter Manz, Lathan Schneider, Tyler Schlatter, and Mason Schlatter placed 5th at the state competition and got a banner. In the month of May, the chapter helped with the annual greenhouse sale with a record breaking number of sales! We would also like to congratulate Kyle Harris, Isaac Smalley, Baylee March, Jalynn Parrett, Kyle Mobley, Jaylyn McCloud, and Ben Weible for receiving their state degree in May during the state convention! The month of June brought the Paulding County Fair where members received several awards, and the fair court was made entirely of Paulding FFA members! The chapter members also helped serve lunches at the summer lunch program in June.
In the month of August, the Paulding FFA officer team went on an officer retreat for three days to Hocking Hills, Ohio. During the officer retreat the officers scheduled events for the upcoming year and did many team building activities. Andrew DeLong, an FFA advisor from Chief Logan, talked to the officers about leadership and trust in a team.
During September the members attended a farm science review which was held in London Ohio. Members also started preparing for job interview and food science contests. At the end of September 5 FFA officers traveled to Columbus for the Ohio Legislative Leadership Conference.
The next three months of October, November and December were busy times for the FFA members. In October, the greenhouse class painted small pumpkins for Halloween, which were given to the residents of The Gardens of Paulding and the Country Inn. Members also made up snacks for our annual feeding the farmers program where we visited over 100 farmers and gave them a snack pack as a thank you for feeding our country. At the end of October 12 FFA members traveled to Indianapolis for the National FFA Convention. These members watched the general sessions, a rodeo, a concert, and went to a scream park. We would also like to congratulate Jen Stahl, Jonathan Reinhard, Riley Noffsinger, Shannon Hale, and Jordyn Merriman on receiving their American degree during the convention. The chapter also received the three star chapter award at convention which was a Huge accomplishment for our chapter after many years of competing in the national chapter program.
In November Kyle Mobley, Jamy Hunt, Sydney Trahin, Jalyn Klopfenstein, Carter Manz, Paige Jones, Brooke Kilgore, Tytus Manz, Caydence Rue, and Colby Singer participated in the job interview contest and Paige Jones made it to the state contest in December. Also, in November the chapter was excited to kick off their annual fruit sales which was very successful this year thanks to our community support.
December brought the end of the fruit sales and the delivery of our fruit. We had a food science team made up of Paige Jones, Jamy Hunt, Ally-Jo Merriman and Carter Manz who competed at the state level and placed 7th as a team. Jamy Hunt placed 9th out of 72 members. Paige Jones completed in the State Job Interview Contest and placed 3rd in the Senior Division. Our members went Adopt-a-Family shopping, this year we adopted four families and wrapped the presents during class. We also helped with the Salvation Army bell ringing at our local Chiefs. During Christmas break members are working hard to prepare their State and American FFA degrees for evaluation in January. 2021 has been a very successful year for the members of the Paulding FFA and we look forward to what 2022 will bring! Thanks to our community supporters and our FFA Alumni for all their support of our chapter.
