By: Grace Goyings, Paulding FFA Reporter
The Paulding FFA Chapter is proud to have over 120 members with an additional 18- 8th grade students taking the 8th grade Vo-ag class. The chapter has 9 FFA officers and 2 advisors who help to lead the chapter. The Paulding FFA Chapter has had an enjoyable and eventful year so far and we are looking forward to the new projects in the coming months of 2024. Here is a highlight of our 2023 year starting last January to now.
In January, The Paulding FFA started the new year by putting the final touches on the state and American degree applications as well as the officer books. The FFA chapter had 9 students applying for state degrees and 3 students applying for their American Degree. At the district level, all of our officers’ books received a GOLD rating for the 7th year in a row with all of the books receiving a perfect score on their books. Great job to Treasurer Jalyn Klopfenstein for all her hard work on the treasurer’s book. Wonderful job to our reporter Caydence Rue on creating a beautifully done scrapbook for our chapter. Great job Jamy Hunt who completed the secretary’s book for a gold rating as well. 4 members traveled to Central State University to compete in the State agriculture biotechnology contest. In this contest, the team made a solution, identified laboratory tools, and made a presentation about food poisoning. The team was made up of Jamy Hunt, Casey Agler, Ally Jo Merriman, and Grace Goyings.
In February, the annual Paulding FFA Alumni Pancake and Sausage Supper was held. The Ag sales team consisting of Mason Schlatter, Jamy Hunt, Maci Kauser, and Brooke Kilgore placed 2nd in the district competition at Spencerville and got the opportunity to compete in the state contest. 4 FFA members participated in sub-district public speaking; Addy Hunt, Lucy Breier, Jamy Hunt, and Caydence Rue. Addy Hunt places 1st advancing her to districts. The FFA chapter planned many events in honor of FFA week. We didn’t have school on Monday but on Tuesday we started the week off with a short ag quiz for a cookie sponsored by Ag Credit and had our competitive cornhole tournament with the student body. Then on Wednesday, we had our annual teacher appreciation lunch, and Dalton Mullins, a state officer, visited to talk to us. During Thursday, Dietz Racing came into class to give us a very hands-on experience with actual race cars and how they work. On Friday, we finished off the week with the annual Ag Olympics with the entire high school, a favorite event each year! There were also dress-up days at school the entire week which included cowboy on the beach day and sleepy farmer day. The chapter continued their community service project Crushing Cans for Cancer. The chapter collected pop cans at school with over $700 earned which was donated to cancer research. The chapter is excited to continue this project to help everyone who has been affected by cancer and help work towards finding a cure!
In March, the chapter participated in the Ag basketball tournament and had a very fun time. The chapter members also got their strawberry orders in and delivered them to several community members. We also had over 12 members participate in Tractor Drive-In Day to show the younger grades. The equine team consisting of Brooke Kilgore, Johnny Lipps, Ally Jo Merriman, and Piper Kochel competed in the Spring Skills Contest. Over 14 members filled out officer applications and interviews were conducted for the new office team. Our members always look forward to driving their tractors to school during this event. Anna Clemens, Johnny Lipps, Courtney Good, and Gracelynn Klopfenstein made up the Dairy Cattle judging team and got to compete in the state competition.
In April, 14 members submitted applications and had interviews for the upcoming officer team. The Outdoor power team consisting of Mason Schlatter, Tytus Manz, and Tyler Schlatter competed at Sentinel Career Center. The chapter held its 96th annual FFA banquet on April 15th with the theme being “Country State of Mind”, where we will recognize the chapter’s accomplishments of the past year, elect new officers, and give awards to community members for their support. The 2022 officer team made their last visit to Oakwood for a fun end to their OYA program. The greenhouse class helped out in the community by working together for several days to mulch Herb Monroe Park. The chapter had its annual greenhouse sale featuring various vegetables, flowers, and hanging baskets all put together by the greenhouse class. We also had our annual Petting Zoo where members could bring in their animals for the entire school to come down and see. Mason and Tyler Schlatter traveled to compete in the state trap shoot shooting event.
In May, our students were busy in the shop working on their still projects for the fair. We also celebrated the accomplishments of our chapter at the state level by attending the Ohio FFA State Convention with 41 members attending. 9 members received their State FFA degree. The officers helped the 9th graders for 2 days on their trip to Camp Lakota. At the end of the month, Mrs. Miller conducted SAE home visits as our members prepared for the Paulding County Fair which took place in early June.
During June, the Paulding County Fair took place, the chapter had over 100 members who participated in many activities. We had 45 members that had livestock projects and over 80 that had still projects. The chapter had at least one livestock project in each barn. As a chapter we had many members participate in the Lonnie Miller kickball tournament. We had five members who were royalty members on the court for the king and queen contest. The chapter had many members who received plaques or best-of-class ribbons on their still projects. Many of our members won awards for their livestock projects including grand/reserve champions. Safe to say that we had a successful fair! The officer team went to Frazeysburg, Ohio for an officer retreat. This retreat was a great opportunity for the new officer team to get to know each other better so that they could work as a team for the 2022-2023 FFA year. The officer team did many team bonding activities with each other and were all challenged to make up their own team bonding game. The team also got the opportunity to go kayaking and they had a blast!
In July our chapter president, Jamy Hunt, and vice president, Kobe Foor, got an amazing opportunity to go to Washington D.C. for a leadership conference. They got to meet people from all over the United States and go outside of their comfort zone. They learned many valuable leadership skills to bring back home with them to further benefit our chapter.
In August, the chapter had their member and parent meeting, where they learned a little bit more about FFA from the officer team and their advisors. We decided to take the non-traditional meeting route and made the evening full of fun tours and hands-on activities to get the parents and members involved and excited for the upcoming school year. There were over 200 members and parents along with many FFA Alumni members that attended the meeting. The Alumni members prepared everyone who attended a sausage sandwich, lemonade, and cookies so that they had something to eat while the officers talked about all of the different CDEs and opportunities that our chapter has to offer
During September, we had several members walk in the Oakwood Homecoming Parade to proudly represent Paulding FFA. A few members also stayed after to help run games for the kids to keep the festivities going. It was so much fun and a great way for our members to get more involved in the community. 31 members attended Farm Science Review to learn more about agriculture and its emerging technology.
In October, Our chapter had 8 members compete in the District 4 soils CDE in Upper Sandusky. There was one team for rural soils and then there was another team for urban soils. The rural soils team was made up of Brooke Kilgore, Jamy Hunt, Anna Clemens, and Sam Reinhard. The urban team was made up of Kobe Foor, Tyler Schlatter, Brooklyn Schlatter, and Tori Schlatter. Both of the teams had to take a general knowledge test, and a survey test, and judge 4 different soil pits. Both teams are looking at the soil texture, soil structure, slope, drainage class, and compaction when judging the pits. Both of the teams did very well and learned a lot. 10 members competed in the sub-district Job Interview. These members include Kate Manz, Mariah Klopfenstein, Clayton Manz, Addy Hunt, Jalyn Klopfenstein, Grace Goyings, Jamy Hunt, Tytus Manz, Sarah Lewis, and Trinity Salazar. We had one member from each division move onto districts which we got the honor of hosting this year. Mariah Klopfenstein and Jamy Hunt placed 1st in their division and got the opportunity to compete in the state prelims. Our chapter also started the Paulding FFA Annual Fruit Sale in October, all of our members did a great job at selling as much fruit as they could to help out our chapter.
During November, our chapter had 12 members travel to Indianapolis, Indiana for the 96th Annual National FFA Convention. The members were there for 5 days and had a very busy schedule. On the first day of the convention, the members got to tour Agricor, do some shopping, and stop at a haunted house on their way down. The next day the chapter toured Umbarger Feed, walked around the convention/expo center, and got to go to the Lainey Wilson concert. On the 3rd day of the convention, we toured Umbarger Feed and the chapter went to the 2nd general session, during this session our chapter was recognized as a 3-Star National Chapter which was the 3rd year the chapter had been Nationally recognized. Then on the 4th day, we took a tour of Ozark Fisheries and got to go to the rodeo. Then to conclude our trip, on the last day we watched 3 members; Janae Pease, Sam Woods, and Kyle Mobley walk across the stage to receive their American Degrees. The Aquarium Management team made up of Xander Bartley, Addy Hunt, Clayton Manz, and Jamy Hunt competed at the state contest. The Food science team members, Maci Kauser, Jamy Hunt, Grace Goyings, and Xander Bartley competed in the district competition and placed 2nd securing them an opportunity to compete in the state competition in January 2024.
In December, our chapter had a gingerbread house competition, each class split into 5 groups and made different gingerbread houses, then they got judged by the staff members at our school and the winners received candy treats from the chapter. All the members also decorated cookies during class and made some hot chocolate to celebrate the Christmas season before exams. The FFA officer team also had their Christmas party, they had a lot of fun bonding with each other and playing different holiday games.
We are so thankful for the support of our school district, FFA Alumni, and the community as our chapter continues to grow and thrive. We truly could not do it without everyone’s support!
