By: Addy Hunt, Paulding FFA Reporter
The Paulding FFA Chapter is proud to have over 120 members with 35- 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 2025.
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 12 students applying for state degrees and 4 students applying for their American Degree. We had Grace Goyings, Xander Bartley, Jamy Hunt, and Maci Kauser compete at the State Food Science CDE in Columbus as well. Our 2023-2024 officer team had the opportunity to go to the Huntington Leadership Conference where they were able to listen to a variety of speakers throughout the day
In February, members Jamy Hunt and Kobe Foor had the opportunity to speak at a Kiwanis meeting and explain our Agriculture Education program. 4 members of the chapter went to compete in the Ag Biotechnology CDE in Columbus. The team consisted of Grace Goyings, Maci Kauser, Casey Agler, and Jamy Hunt and placed 6th in the state. During FFA week, we held our 1st annual Farmer Appreciation breakfast. We also had a visit from state officer Emma Wells who helped the students with activities that are meant to develop their qualities of leadership. We also held our Ag Olympics where students from the whole school are invited to play agriculture related games for the morning. We also held our teacher appreciation lunch during this time to round out National FFA Week. Williamson Crop Insurance gave shirts to the top strawberry fruit salespeople that included: Kobe Foor, Anabel Martinez, Hunter Couts, and Izaac Couts. 3 members competed in the Public Speaking Contest at Spencerville at the district level. The members were Jamy Hunt, Mariah Klopfenstein, and Tori Schlatter.
In March, the chapter participated in the Ag basketball tournament at Kalida and had a very fun time. The team consisting of Tyler Schlatter, Jesse Schaffer, Jalen Manz, Colten Hunt, Jordan Manz, and Hunter Couts were able to secure the first place plaque. We had the following 4 members compete in the State Ag Sales Contest: Jamy Hunt, Addy Hunt, Xander Bartley, and Sam Reinhard, where they are required to demonstrate the qualities of a good sales pitch. We once again hosted our annual tractor drive day along with our tractor safety day with the help of Paulding Farm Bureau and Truland Equipment. The Dairy Cattle Team consisting of Ally Jo Merriman, Anna Clemens, Johnny Lipps, and Courtney Good went down to Columbus to compete at the Ohio State Fairgrounds and represented Paulding proudly with the help of coaches Gretl and Heidi Schlatter.
In April, Farm Credit Mid-America generously donated $5,000 that was accepted by the officer team. The funds went towards creating new programs that will help benefit the community. We held our annual banquet early in the month where our 2024-2025 officer team was elected to start their positions. Our officers this year are Parliamentarian Johnny Lipps, Chaplin Myrriah Manz, Reporter Addison Hunt, Secretary Brooklyn Schlatter, President Grace Goyings, Vice President Jalyn Klopfenstein, Treasurer Brooke Kilgore, Sentinel Tori Schlatter and Student Advisor Blake Rhonehouse with Mrs. Staci Miller as teacher and FFA advisor and Mrs Jennifer Bradford as FFA advisor. We hold this banquet to give awards to our members and also award members of the community that have shown detrimental support to our program every year. The 2023-2024 officer team went to Oakwood Elementary to finish out the OYA program for the school year. During this time we opened our plant sales which were a huge success once again. The annual petting zoo was held at the end of the month in the shop. The petting zoo allows elementary, middle, and high school students to have experiences with animals that they may not be able to have those experiences with regularly.
In May, our students were busy in the shop working on their still projects for the fair. We attended the State Convention in Columbus where we had 12 students receive their state degree as well as members participating in the state band. Our 3 Gold rated officer books were recognized on stage. We also held our annual officer retreat at the very end of the month after school let out, down in Hocking Hills. Officer retreat allows for the new officers that come in bond and create help the advisors plan out the 2024-2025 year. This year we were also able to go kayaking. 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 four 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! Jamy Hunt and Xander Bartley had the opportunity to present a check to Limitless that came from the profits of the chapters 3D Printing the Future for Ag Program that was just recently started.
In August, the officers and their parents started out the year with their annual meeting to discuss the upcoming year and the officers responsibilities. We also had a big addition to the hallway in front of the Ag room after adding a State and American degree wall of fame. 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! Our officers had the opportunity to go to Mercer Landmark’s AGrow Expo, where they were able to learn about new and upcoming technological advancements in agriculture, as well as big corporation projects for the upcoming 2025 year. The chapter also held a petting zoo outside of The Gardens in Paulding for the members of the facility to be able to come and enjoy. Our 2024-2025 officer team also kicked off the OYA program at Oakwood for the year, during September. Officers Johnny Lipps, Brooklyn Schlatter, Addy Hunt, and Blake Rhonehouse attending the Ohio Legislative Leadership Conference where they were able to listen to speakers talk about the importance of leadership as well as learn the process of passing, supporting, and selling a bill to the other members there.
In October, we had two teams compete at the district level Soil Judging CDE in Mercer County. We also made and handed out bags of treats for local farmers as a part of our Feeding the Farmers Program. The chapter was able to hand out 150 bags this year! We also had members volunteer at Camp Lakota to help Oakwood and Paulding 6th graders with their bonding activities. The members had a blast and loved helping! We had 2 trapshoot contests this month with Matt Bail winning the plaque during each shoot. Our chapter had 11 members travel to Indianapolis, Indiana for the 97th 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 tourTimber Ridge Wind Farm, do some shopping, and go to a trampoline park. The next day the chapter toured Beaslys Orchard, walked around the convention/expo center, and got to go to an escape room where one of our groups made it out. On the 3rd day of the convention, 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 4th year the chapter had been Nationally recognized. Then on the 4th day, we took a tour of Traders Point Creamery and got to go to the rodeo. Then to conclude our trip, on the last day we watched 2 members; Mason Schlatter and Carter Manz walk across the stage to receive their American Degrees.
During November, we had 8 students compete in the sub-district Job Interview CDE where 4 of them were able to advance to districts. We also had 9 members go to Columbus during this time to compete in the Aquarium Management CDE; the students are asked to identify different fish and aquatic plants and demonstrate multiple different practicums. We also had our 2024-2025 officer team take their official photos for the year at the fairgrounds with Hayleigh Noffsinger. We were able to have cookies and punch for our new Gold Standards club that honors FFA students on the honor roll every quarter.
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 were also able to hold a teddy bear toss at a varsity basketball game this year to donate bears and money to different EMS groups and hospitals local to us. We also were able to add a past presidents wall to our FFA hallway, sponsored by the Alumni, to finish off our year!
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!
