CNA-SS-02-23-2015

February 23, 2015

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Page 2c— Creston News Advertiser — Monday, February 23, 2015

Developing leadership, cooperation and citizenship for tomorrow’s agricultur-ists - this is the main goal of the national FFA organiza-tion. For 86 years, the FFA has complemented agricul-tural instruction by making classroom lessons come to life through realistic applica-tions.

The FFA is structured on three levels - local, state and national. A board of Direc-tors and six student national officers leads the National FFA Organization. Togeth-er they act on recommen-dations from the national convention delegates and set operational policy for the FFA.

The program division, FFA New Horizons maga-zine, and the National FFA Supply Service, located in Alexandria Virginia (head-quarters) carry through the policies, and provide pro-grams and services for the organization. The national officers represent their members. A President, sec-retary, and four regional vice presidents are elected each year at the national conven-tion.

State associations function within the constitution of the national organization, but also may create individual leadership, award and con-test programs. Chapters are chartered through the state associations. As on the na-tional level, state officers lead their membership of the

associations, and are elected by convention delegates. The number and types of of-ficers at the state level may vary.

In Iowa the Iowa FFA stu-dent officers include presi-dent, six vice presidents, representing the six districts (North East, North Central, North West, South West, South Central, and South East Districts), a secretary and reporter. Each district is further broken down into 4 sub districts (North East, North West, South West, and South East, representing approximately 10-11 schools per sub district).

The heart of the organiza-tion is at the local level. FFA Chapters may be chartered in any public school with an agriculture education program. Officers include a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, report-er, and sentinel. Additional officers may be utilized as the local chapter sees a need.

A Program of Activities is utilized, serving as a road map for planning activities and accomplishing desired goals. Each member is as-signed specific responsibili-ties within the program of activities to ensure total member involvement. Wide-ranging types of activities are utilized to meet individ-ual member needs and the needs of their community.

The FFA is structures into a degree program that re-wards active FFA members

for progress in all phases of leadership, skill and occu-pational development. The Greenhand degree and the Chapter FFA degree are awarded at the chapter level. State Associations award top members with the State FFA degree. The highest degree, the American FFA degree, is conferred on an elite group of members at the national level.

In addition to active membership (retain active membership until Novem-ber 30, following the fourth National FFA Convention after graduation from high school), individuals can become members in three other categories - honor-ary, alumni and collegiate. Honorary membership is conferred on those individu-als who have rendered out-standing service to the FFA and agriculture education. This degree is found on three levels: Honorary Chapter, and American FFA Degrees. Alumni membership is avail-able to former members and other supporters of the FFA. Collegiate members belong to FFA chapters at two or four year post secondary schools and are enrolled in agriculture courses.

FFA is a vital component of the agriculture education programs involving millions of students since its incep-tion, in 1928, located in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, and the Dis-trict of Columbia.

The FFA today

Bright and early Sunday morning, 4 Creston FFA members tested their abili-ties in evaluating breeding and market beef at the 2015 Iowa Beef Expo Judging contest, February 8th in Des Moines, Iowa. Members participating in the contest evaluated some of Iowa’s top breeding cattle, to say the least members were looking for the small “stuff” to select the top animals. Classes were made of either purebred or commercial beef, which included breed-ing heifers, and bulls. In ad-dition to visually evaluating the animals, team members were provided with perfor-mance data, scenarios and EPDs (Expected Progeny Difference) to evaluate and

place cattle to meet specific situations.

Livestock is an important factor in raising and breed-ing livestock. Producers use the skill of evaluation on a daily basis for the im-provement of his or her herd through selective breeding practices and culling man-agement. FFA members are learning at an early age through career development events such as livestock judging, in the classroom, and through their super-vise agricultural experience (SAE) projects how to use selection as a management tool for proper and success-ful animal husbandry.

The Creston FFA live-stock judging team will continue work and practice

their skills as they prepare to participate in the Iowa FFA judging circuit this summer and the Iowa FFA state livestock judging ca-reer development event in August.

The Creston FFA live-stock judging team had much to celebrate, as they took home 9th place over-all team at the 2015 Iowa Beef Expo Judging Con-test. Over 200 youth and 31 teams competed in the con-test’s youth division. Mem-bers of the 9th place team included: Tyler Wadding-ham, Macy Evans, Gracie Russell, and Kaden Wilson. The team also earned 4th place in team oral reasons and Tyler Waddingham placed 17th as an individual.

Creston FFA Takes 9th Place at the 2015 Iowa Beef Expo

Pictured in the Pavilion at the Iowa State Fair Grounds for the 2015 Iowa Beef Expo judging contest are Creston FFA members: Gracie Russell, Tyler Waddingham, Kaden Wilson, and Macy Evans.

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Creston News Advertiser — Monday, February 23, 2015 — Page 3c

Creston FFA honors members at 63rd Annual Awards BanquetAdam Baker, Creston

FFA senior member was awarded the Kevin Eblen Memorial scholarship and Paul and Verna Bailey Me-morial scholarship as well as Zack Peppmeier, se-nior member, was awarded the Terry Taylor Memo-rial Scholarship and Paul and Verna Bailey Memo-rial Scholarship to assist with college expenses at the Creston FFA’s 63rd Annual Parent/Member Banquet held Sunday, May 4, 2014. Baker will pursue a degree in agriculture business at Iowa State University in the fall, Peppmeier will also pur-sue an agriculture degree at Southwestern Community College in the fall.

Special Awards: The Chapter’s fifth FFA Pride Award was given to Carl and Donna Watson. They were cited for their support of the Creston FFA chapter through their many volun-teer hours. Watson’s daugh-ter, Rebecca, is an active member of the Creston FFA Chapter.

Senior member Taylor Rice was named the chap-ter’s 2013-14 DeKalb Ag-ricultural Accomplishment Award winner. Monsanto gives the annual award to a student that not only has an outstanding SAE program but also exhibits good lead-ership and citizenship quali-ties.

The FFA Distinguished

Service Award was present-ed to Michael Harmison of Harmison’s fundraising for his involvement in assisting with annual fall and spring fundraising. The chapter’s Honorary Chapter FFA De-gree was awarded to Claudia Peppers for the effort she puts forth in supporting and assisting the chapter.

Contest Awards: Members receiving contest award pins and plaques in their respec-tive areas were Lane Miller--Public Speaking; Brooke Thelen—Extemporane-ous Speaking; Tyler Wad-dingham –Ag Sales; Taylor Rice—Job Interview; Mattie Travis – Ag Broadcasting; John Gravlin, Ashley Har-ris, and Ann Waigand--Pro-gram of Activities; Olivia Hartman – Freshman Creed Speaker; Macy Evans, Will Gordon, Morgan Shawler, Trevor Marlin, Rebecca Watson, Cody Tanner, and Mattie Wheeler – Fresh-man Conduct of Meetings; Gracie Russell, Caitlin Mc-Ilravy, Emily Gravlin, Maria Mostek, and Becca Ross, --Parliamentary Procedures; Logan Pettit, Tom Stien-bach, and Dakota Burgmei-er -- Freshmen Quiz; Kyle Jennett, Jake Miller, Nicole Haley, and Emily Gravlin--Chapter Quiz competi-tion; Adam Baker, Wyatt Thomspon, Tyson Tucker, Darrian Fischer, Zach Hoff-man, Jake Miller, and Kruz Adamson – Agriculture Is-

sues and Perceptions; Jake Miller, Zach Hoffman, and Bryce Briley – Ag Market-ing; Madison Skarda, Savan-nah Hartman, Olivia Hart-man, Nicole Haley, Darin Hatfield, Chad Lamb, Dar-rian Fischer, Macy Evans, Logan Pettit, Cody Tanner, Will Gordon, Trevor Mar-lin, Dillon Bailey, and Nick Walsh – Experience the Action; Adam Baker, Ja-cob Powers, Jeremy Stoll, and Zack Peppmeier –Farm Business Management; Tay-lor Rice – Secretary’s book; Madison Skarda and Savan-nah Hartman—Reporter’s Scrapbook; Becca Ross and Emily Gravlin –Brooke Thelen—Chapter Website.

Proficiency & Degree Recognition: Darin Hat-field, Zack Peppmeier, Lane

Miller, Brooke Thelen and Tyler Waddingham were recognized by the chapter for their outstanding Super-vised Agriculture Experi-ences (SAE) and received a proficiency pin.

Iowa Degree recipients recognized included Bryce Briley, Ashley Harris, Darin Hatfield, Savannah Hart-man, Kyle Jennett, Chad Lamb, Gavin Leith, Jake Miller, Jacob Powers, Madi-son Skarda, Brooke Thelen, and Tyler Waddingham. The Iowa Degree recipients received their gold charms during the 86th Sate FFA Leadership Conference held in Ames. Brooke Thelen was recognized as a Star Agribusiness finalist for her equine training and riding lessons business, this recog-

nition is determined by the Iowa FFA Degree applica-tion and record book sub-mission.

Local Chapter Recog-nitions: Record-keeping awards went to Olivia Hart-man, Wyatt Thompson, Darin Hatfield, and Lane Miller. Zack Peppmeier re-ceived the SAE-FFA Mem-ber Point Award. Other award recipients included Dillon Bailey, Salesman-ship Award; Brooke Thelen, Chapter Leadership Award; Darrian Fischer, Star Farm-er Degree; Star Greenhand, Macy Evans and Mattie Wheeler; Scholarship Rec-ognition: Mattie Wheeler, Logan Pettit, Ann Waigand, Ashley Harris, Kyle Jen-nett, Jeremy Stoll and Zack Peppmeier.

Other Star Awards in-cluded Brooke Thelen, Star Chapter Agribusiness and Tyler Waddingham was Star in Agricultural Placement.

Kelsey Bailey, FFA Ad-visor, thanked the parents and community for all of their support of the Creston FFA Chapter and its mem-bers. Bailey also addressed the members expressing her appreciation for their hard work, dedication, and lead-ership they have shown over the past year.

After the program con-cluded, the chapter distrib-uted more than $500 worth of door prizes which were donated by local businesses. Approximately 110 parents, members, and guests were in attendance.

Creston FFA’s newly elected 2013-2015 officers: (front) Ashley Harris (treasurer), Savannah Hartman (historian), Darin Hatfield (president), Brooke Thelen (vice president); (middle) Macy Evans (assistant reporter), Madison Skarda (reporter), Bryce Briley (secretary), Darrian Fischer (officer at large); (back) Zach Hoffman (sentinel), Wyatt Thompson (officer at large), and Chad Lamb (parliamentarian).

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212 and 360 leadership conferences212° – the temperature

at which water boils is the theme for the Iowa FFA fall leadership conference held at the FFA Enrichment Cen-ter on the DMACC campus in Ankeny, Iowa. At the conference the focus was on taking students to the boiling point of leadership. At 211° water is extremely hot, but just one more degree gets us to the next level. This con-ferences focused on student development. Students were challenged to push the limits. This year the conference spe-cifically address the concept of virtue – what will it take to be a person of high mor-als and standards. Creston FFA’s freshmen members Taylor Sorrells and Jordan Moreland took on the chal-lenge of starting their FFA leadership journey by at-tending the November 15th 212 Leadership Conference.

The 360° leadership con-

ference took Creston FFA members Livi Hartman and Rebecca Watson full circle in chapter leadership de-velopment. The conference covered every angle for de-veloping action plans for the chapter. This conference focused on chapter develop-ment and the theme centered

around the concept of vision – having a vision for personal and chapter goals.

The 212 and 360 leader-ship conferences are spon-sored by Syngenta, Crop Production Services, Helena and Willbur Ellis as a special project of the National FFA Foundation.

Creston FFA members attending the 2014 212 conference were freshman Taylor Sorrells and Jordan Moreland. The two girls learned the FFA is an organization that puts emphasis on the importance of living by and showing high morals and standards, this year’s conference was centered on virtues.

Creston FFA chapter members Livi Hartman and Rebecca Watson dedicated an entire Saturday toward learning how to build their FFA chapter’s program. Livi and Rebecca attended the FFA 360 Leadership Conference on November 22 at the Iowa FFA Enrichment Center on the DMACC campus in Ankeny, Iowa.

Everyone can fondly re-member riding bicycles as a child. However, most peo-ple don’t know that every year about 176,000 kids go to the emergency room of a hospital because of bike ac-cidents. Some of these inju-ries are so serious that chil-dren die, usually from head injuries. This is a problem the Creston FFA member-ship has been addressing for more than a decade. In this time well over 2,100 young people have been taught the importance of bicycle safety and provided with a helmet they can wear when riding their bikes.

Creston FFA, working with the Creston Law En-forcement Center and the Union County Sheriff’s De-partment, presented their annual three-day bicycle safety program to over 200 first and second grade stu-dents in the Creston public and St. Malachy schools on May 15th, 16th, and 23rd.

With the help of the Cres-ton police, FFA members explained the importance of wearing safety gear and knowing the correct hand signals when riding a bi-cycle. Students received a coloring page on bicycle safety and were provided the opportunity to demon-strate how to properly ride a bicycle on a city street, how to use hand signals when turning away or into traffic,

and how to approach vari-ous street signs on a bicycle safety rodeo course.

The Chapter was assisted in its presentations by local police officer Pat Henry. According to newly elected Chapter President Darin Hatfield, officer Pat Henry was very important to the overall program’s success. “The law enforcement al-ways works well with the young people and are very knowledgeable about the bicycle safety laws, adding credibility to our presenta-

tion and program,” added newly elected Chapter Vice President Brooke Thelen another FFA member in-volved in the safety pro-gram.

“Safety can save lives if we take it seriously,” stated FFA member Taylor Rice. “If we can get one youngster to look before crossing an intersection, our efforts will be worthwhile,” added Kyle Jennett who was a member of the team which presented the programs to the Creston area youth.

Youth involved in three-day bicycle safety program

FFA member Darin Hatfield is shown assisting a bicycle safety participant learn how to use the “Stop” signal for when riding her bicycle where there might be traf-fic. First and second grade students participated in the chapter’s three-day bicycle safety program. The local FFA Chapter and Union County Law Enforcement Center purchased helmets that were given to all first grade participants.

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Creston FFA members along with advisor Kelsey Bailey, and chaperones Wayne Hanson and Cody Lamb, were among the over 5,000 members and guest who attended the recently completed 86th annual State FFA Leadership Conferenc-es in Ames, Iowa, April 28th and 29th.

The Creston FFA Chap-ter’s tradition of excellence continued when the local FFA Chapter was again rec-ognized as on of the elite programs in the state of Iowa during the 2014 State FFA Leadership Conferenc-es proceedings held in Hil-ton Coliseum on the campus of Iowa State University. The Creston FFA Chapter placed in the state’s Nation-al Chapter Award competi-tion earning a gold emblem award and recognized with the Supreme National Chap-ter award. The chapter’s ap-plication will advance to Na-tional competition this fall.

Creston FFA was busy with leadership contest while attending the confer-ence. Maddie Travis partici-pated in the state level agri-culture radio broadcasting career development event earning a silver award. A large Experience the Action team earned a silver em-blem at state conference, the team consisted of: Madison Skarda, Savannah Hartman, Olivia Hartman, Logan Pet-tit, Nicole Haley, Darin Hat-field, Chad Lamb, Darrian Fischer, Macy Evans, Cody

Tanner, Will Gordon, Trev-or Marlin, Dillon Bailey, and Nick Walsh. The agriculture marketing team earning a silver emblem, the team was made of Bryce Briley, Jake Miller, and Zach Hoffman. The farm business manage-ment team made of Adam Baker, Zack Peppmeier, Jer-emy Stoll and Jacob Powers earned a gold rating at state. Two freshman members, Morgan Shawler and Mattie Wheeler earned a silver em-blem for the greenhand quiz contest. The chapter display earned a bronze emblem; Becca Ross and Emily Grav-lin created this year’s state chapter display.

Individual FFA members were recognized and award-ed for their outstanding leadership, SAE projects, and classroom achievement. Brooke Thelen was a candi-date for the Star Over Iowa in Agribusiness. Brooke has an outstanding equine training and lessons busi-ness as well as competes in many barrel racing events; Brooke also raises and ex-hibits cattle, all of which she documents as her SAE in her record book. Wyatt Thompson was recognized as one of six Rising Star candidates. The Rising Star is an award presented to a sophomore member who shows outstanding leader-ship and growth in the FFA. Darin Hatfield was recog-nized as the top proficiency state winning member for his SAE in agribusiness place-

ment, Darin’s application has been advanced to the na-tional level. Zack Peppmei-er was awarded second place proficiency in diversified livestock production. Lane Miller received 3rd place at state with his equine sci-ence entrepreneurship pro-ficiency and Brooke Thelen earned 4th place with her equine science placement proficiency. Four members earned the state’s academic achievement award they are: Adam Baker, Taylor Rice, Zack Peppmeier, and Jer-emy Stoll.

Twelve local FFA mem-bers were awarded the Iowa FFA Degree during the con-vention proceedings. This degree is the highest honor the Iowa FFA Association bestows upon its member-ship. Recipients of this hon-or must put forth great ef-fort through involvement in course work, leadership, and SAE achievement. Those earning their Iowa FFA De-grees include: Bryce Briley, Ashley Harris, Savannah Hartman, Darin Hatfield, Kyle Jennett, Chad Lamb, Gavin Leith, Jake Miller,

Jacob Powers, Madison Skarda, Brooke Thelen, and Tyler Waddingham.

Over 20 Creston FFA members participated in the Iowa FFA’s state philan-thropy project while attend-ing the convention. Meals from the Heartland set up packaging tables on the floor of Hilton Coliseum, where thousands of FFA members

packaged over 260,000 meals to give to the food insecure. Such meals will be shipped throughout the world and domestically to aid in fight-ing the global food insecurity epidemic. The Creston FFA Chapter was assigned the duty to assist in the clean up and load out of the 260,000

meals. Creston FFA mem-bers look forward to help-ing with the annual project, Chad Lamb states, “I like helping with Meals from the Heartland, it makes you feel good to know you are help-ing others.”

Other member involve-ment saw Brooke Thelen

and John Gravlin serve as state delegates voting on all official business and state officer elections. The Chap-ter was extremely proud of our current president, Lane Miller, for making the state officer ballot for the South Central State Vice Presi-dent.

Creston FFA Chapter named One of Iowa’s Best at State Leadership Conference

41 Creston FFA members attended the 2014 86th Annual Iowa FFA State Leadership Conference in Ames, Iowa, April 28th and 29th. Members participated in many leader-ship career development events as well as honored for outstanding achievements.

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Vocational Agriculture, now called ASTM (Agricul-ture Science, Technology & Marketing) began in 1917 when Congress passed the Smith Hughes Act and in 1928 the FFA organization was established.

It was not until 1951 that the FFA became a part of the Creston Community School system.

From its inception the Creston FFA Chapter has grown. Initially the program was located in a small room at the old high school, but by 1969 the enrollment of 58 students had outgrown its small facility. That year the ground was broken for a new facility on the corner of Swan and Pine streets. Evert C. Hunsicker was the instructor at that time.

After Hunsicker’s re-tirement in 1977, Galen R. Zumbach became the sixth FFA advisor to work in the Creston Community School System until his retirement in 2010. Kelsey Bailey be-came the seventh FFA Ad-visor to head the Creston FFA program when she be-gan her duties in the 2010-11 school year. Today the Creston FFA membership has become one of the top programs in the state of Iowa and the nation with a mem-bership of 85 students.

The Creston FFA Chapter was recognized nationally for thirteen years in Building Our American Communities

winning state and national competition in 1993 and state competition in 1994. After twenty-three years the BOAC program was discontinued in 1995. Dur-ing the past sixteen years the Creston FFA Chapter has been recognized as one of the nation’s top programs in the FFA’s National Chapter Award Program competi-tion. Since 1986 the Creston FFA membership won state competition in the National Chapter Safety Award Pro-gram six times (1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996). The Safety program was discontinued in 1996. Both BOAC and Safety are now part of the new National Chapter Award program. The Creston FFA Chapter was the only Iowa chapter to be recognized in all three national chapter award pro-grams areas (BOAC, Safety, National Chapter) from 1985 to 1995. These accomplish-ments led to the Creston FFA Chapter being named Iowa’s top FFA Chapter in 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, and 1995, in what was then called Triple Crown competition, and as Iowa’s Supreme FFA Chapter in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2006 in the new National Chapter Award Program competition. In 1996 the Creston FFA Chapter was only one of three chapters in the nation to be a top ten finalist in all three national chapter award areas (chapter

development, student devel-opment and community de-velopment) being selected as the nation’s best in commu-nity development. In 1997 and 1998 the chapter was named a finalist in two of the national chapter award com-petition areas (Community Development and Chapter Development) winning in the area of Community De-velopment for a second and third time. The local Chap-ter is the only chapter in the nation to win three national chapter award competitions. In 1999 and 2003 the chapter was named a national merit finalist in Community De-velopment, and Chapter De-velopment, winning the com-munity development award on the state level in 1999. Nine times in the past fifteen years the local chapter has been named a state winner in one of the five chapter areas (Economic, Environment, Human Resources, Agricul-tural Awareness) found in the National Chapter Award Program.

The Community Develop-ment Recognition Program was created in 2004 to rec-ognize those programs in the state that most impact their communities in the following area: (1) Economic, (2) En-vironment, (3) Human Re-sources, and (4) Agricultural Awareness. The Creston FFA Program has won the overall state CDRP compe-titions in 2007 and 2010. In

2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 the local chapter was named a winner in the areas of either environmental or economic development on the state level.

Since 1977, 221 chapter members have received State FFA degrees. Prior to 1977 four chapter members received this coveted honor. Terry Taylor was the first member to receive this hon-or in 1961 followed by James Jones in 1962, Raymond Wilson in 1965, and John Wolfe in 1971. Raymond Wilson and his son Chris and daughter Erin were the first and only father, son, daugh-ter combinations to receive their state FFA degrees. Chris received his degree in 1988 while Erin received her degree in 1992.

Other chapter members who received their state FFA degrees since 1977 were Da-vid Brown, 1979; Dan Hawks, and Larry Bailey, 1980; Den-nis Leith (Star South Cen-tral District-production), 1981; Brad Anderson, Joe Moore, Mick Pettit, and Kevin Moulin, 1982; Roger Baker, Lori Hartsook, Kevin Eblen, Dean Leith, and Ron Skarda, 1983; Steve Weese, Tim Loudon, Steve Rhine, Thane Glynn, and Alan Weisshaar, 1984; Greg Ehm, Scott Pettit, and Rick Quam, 1985; Tony Clem, Chuck Denton (Star South Central District-agribusiness), Doug

Fils, Brian Priest, and Ken Kline, 1986; Eddie Ide, Kara Frey, and Tom Woodard (Star South Central District-Agribusiness and Star Iowa Agribusinessman) 1987; Brian Smith, Sherry Sam-mons, Sean Dunphy, John Taylor, and Chris Wilson, 1988; Jodi Western, Scott Finn, and Kirk Francis, 1989; Alan Bennett, Derek Mohr (Star South Central District-production), Matt John-son, Rob Evans, and Shawn Kline, 1990; Erin Wilson, 1992; Ryan Mohr, Rod West, Ben Adamson, Andy John-son, Matt Moberg, and T.J. Dunphy, 1993; Rick Reeve, Brad James, Jan James, Dar-ren Long (Star South Cen-tral District Farmer), Jamie Travis, 1994; Brook Linder-man, Chad Rieck, Melissa Baker, Brad Van Gelder, Nathan Pottinger, Ann Mo-berg, Michelle Saville and Shamus Stephens in 1995; Scott Evans, and Jake Tripp, 1996; John Paul Pokorny, Clint Travis, Amanda James, Clint Brown, Cody Purdum, Trista Ide, Kory Tanner in 1997, and Corey Bailey, Josh Sevier, Philip Moberg, Clint Hoffman, Meredith Baker, Mike Taylor, Curtis Hoakison, and Mandy Tra-vis in 1998; Carly Hoffman, Caleb Hoakison, Nathan Studer, Levi Buxton, Charlie Tripp, Jeremy Ide, Nathan-iel Jackson, Brian Bolton, Adam Travis, Logan Jack-son, 1999; Jill Tussey, Dusty

Brown, Rachel Bolton, Aaron Hoyt, Janelle Bux-ton, Josie Stephens, Matt McNichols, Trina White, Brad Crill, Casey Purdum, Chad Ide, Cody Waltersdorf; 2000; Adrian Richardson, Francine Jackson, Derek Quam, Travis Eggman, Kashia Studer, Blair Taylor, Alyssa Franklin, Clint Tra-vis, Matt Raemaker, Nathan Katzer, Kelsey Hoakison, Cody Bailey and Matt Buck, 2001; Cody Bailey, Nathan Katzer, Cole Miller, Cody Frey, Mike Hilger, Cory Hoakison, Lindsay Loomis, Mallory Travis, Nick Tussey, Taften Kuhl, Kevin Lents, 2002; Jeff Baker (Star Iowa Agribusiness Degree Final-ist) Mike Baker, Dan Mar-twick, Nick Schultz, Tyler Mahan, Sam Aleto, Michael Buck, David Schroder, Jor-dan Kralik, Ashley Studer, Chris Downing, Tim Jennett, Luke Baker, Matt Ramaeker , 2003; Sam Johnson, Jacque Jay, Megan Brown, Jim Ide, 2004; Austin Studer, Andy Jennett, Ashley Hartsook, Laura Baker, Heidi Ra-maeker, Brooke Peppmeier, Austin Berry, Justin Lin-derman, Jacob Schierbaum, Adam Leith, Sam Katzer, Damian Richardson, Tyler Wolf, 2005; Curtiss Bird, Eric Bradley, Caleb Brus, Judd Goldsmith, Jenny Ha-gen, Michael Hyde, Emily

Local Chapter History

Please seeHISTORY, Page 7

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Continued from Page 6

Ide, Jason Lents, Tyrell Miller, Steven Moeller, Steve Myers, Keith Peter-son, Nicole Stoll, Cameron Weeda, Ben Weis, 2006; Alex Johnson, Kyle Thelen, Casey Frey, Jacob McGe-hee, Cody Pearson, Sarah Studer, Candace Weeda, Quin Leith, Jared John-son, Tyler Harris, Adam Riley, Josh Maitlen, Abby Kinyon, Doug North., and Kyle Thelen (Star Ag Place-ment Finalist) 2007; Liz Beatty, Brandon Frey, Pey-ton Glynn, Rachel Griffith, Brian Katzer, Zac Leith, Pete Myers, Ayla Peppmei-er, Todd Ramaeker, Daniel Riley, Alec Smith, Mag-gie Thelen, Nathan Vicker, Grant Wood, 2008; Colton Dunphy (Star Agribusiness Placement) Frances Myers, Ethan Harris, Seth Pals, Ty-ler Pettit, Kevin Irr, Spencer Bakerink, Mackenzie Pear-son, Donovan Richardson, and T’Lee Ray, 2009; Isaac Sedlmayr, Brian West, Sarah Jennett, Chase Blazek, Hal-ey Stalcup, Ashley Peters, Klint Craft, Chelsea Ekeler, and Alec Paup, 2010; Brad Weis, Allison Wood, Mal-lory Griffith in 2011; Zach Powers, Theo Hartman, and Lanae Ramaeker in 2012; Adam Baker, Lane Miller, Zack Peppmeier, Jeremy Stoll, Cooper Bailey, Taylor Rice, Zaidy Frank, and John Gravlin in 2013; Darin Hat-

field, Chad Lamb, Gavin Leith, Jake Miller, Bryce Briley, Brooke Thelen, Sa-vannah Hartman, Madison Skarda, Jacob Powers, Kyle Jennett, Ashley Harris, and Tyler Waddingham in 2014.

Just as the State FFA degree is a good indication of outstanding individual programs, sixty-one mem-bers have gone one step further when they received the American FFA degree. This degree is the highest honor the National FFA organization can bestow on one of its members. Creston FFA members who have re-ceived this coveted degree are Dennis Leith, 1984; Kevin Eblen, 1986; Chuck Denton, 1987; Ken Kline and Brian Priest, 1988; Tom Woodard, Chris Wilson, 1989; Jodi Western, 1991; Alan Bennett, 1992; Erin Wilson, 1994; Ryan Mohr, Darren Long, 1995; Shamus Stephens, Michelle Saville, Ann Moberg, 1997; Clint Brown, Trista Ide, Cody Purdum, 1999; Mike Tay-lor, Nathan Studer, Philip Moberg, Nathaniel Jack-son, and Cory Bailey; 2000; Cory Hoakison, 2001; Fran-cine Jackson, Dusty Brown, Chad Ide, 2002; Derek Quam, 2003; Cody Bailey, Nathan Katzer, Kevin Lents, Lindsay Loomis, Cody Frey, Jeff Baker, Cole Miller, Mi-chael Hilger, 2004; Tim Jen-nett, Luke Baker 2005; Me-gan Brown, Jimmy Ide, and

Sam Johnson, 2006; Austin Studer, Brooke Peppmeier, Andy Jennett, Justin Lin-derman, Laura Baker, Heidi Ramaeker, and Sam Katzer, 2007; Jason Lents, Pete My-ers, Cameron Weeda, Kyle Thelen, and Tyrell Miller, 2008; Quinn Leith, and Can-dace Weeda, 2009; Brian Katzer, Liz Beatty, Todd Ramaeker, Zac Leith, Ayla Peppmeier, and Maggie Thelen in 2010; Ethan Har-ris and Tyler Pettit in 2011: Haley Stalcup and Alec Paup in 2012; and Zach Powers in 2014.

The Creston FFA Chap-ter has also been fortunate enough to have twenty-two members hold several offic-es above the local level with four members serving on either the state or national levels. Kevin Eblen was named National FFA Presi-dent in 1986-87 after serving the Iowa FFA Association as Secretary and President in 1984-85 and 1986-86 re-spectively. Brian Priest served the State FFA As-sociation as Vice President in 1987-88. Erin Wilson and Jan James represented the Iowa FFA Association as Reporters in 1993-94, and 1994-95 respectively. Ann Moberg served the Iowa FFA Association in 1996-97 as State FFA Reporter.

Dan Hawks became the first member to serve above the local level when in 1980 he served the South Central

District as treasurer. Other members to serve on the dis-trict level were Steve Sedam and Brad Anderson who served as District Report-ers in 1981 and 1982 respec-tively; Kevin Eblen, District Reporter -1983 and District Vice President - 1984; Brian Priest, District Reporter - 1985; Kara Frey, District Secretary - 1986; Sherry Sammons, District Reporter - 1987; Alan Bennett, Dis-trict Sentinel - 1988; Alan Bennett and Scott Finn, District Treasurer and Dis-trict Secretary respectively - 1989; Rachel Kneedler, District Reporter - 1991; Erin Wilson, District Trea-surer - 1992; Ryan Mohr, and Erin Wilson served as District Treasurer, and Dis-trict Reporter respectively in 1993; Dirk Glynn, Dis-trict Treasurer, and Jenni Wernli, District Sentinel - 1994, Amanda James, Dis-trict Reporter-1996, Mike Taylor, was elected District Secretary in 1997, and S.C. District Vice President in 1998; Caleb Hoakison, Dis-trict Sentinel, 2000; Megan Brown District Sentinel in 2004, and Donovan Rich-ardson, District Treasurer in 2009.

Since 1977, 252 mem-bers have participated in the state FFA leadership speaking contest areas with fifteen contest state win-ners. They were Kevin Eblen, Tim Loudon and

Rick Quam, Program of Ac-tivities - 1984; Greg Ehm, Mike Gilman, and Kevin Johnston, Program of Ac-tivities - 1985; Mark Swift, Brian Priest, and Tom Woodard, Program of Ac-tivities - 1986; Doug Fils, Extemporaneous Speaking - 1986; Sean Dunphy, Pub-lic Speaking - 1987; Derek Mohr, Alan Bennett, and Kirk Francis, Program of Activities - 1989; Scott Finn, Public Speaking - 1989; Kari Van Gelder, Loretta Har-vey and Matt Johnson, Pro-gram of Activities - 1991; Erin Wilson, Jan James and Kory Borcherding, Program of Activities - 1992; Wesley James, Extemporaneous Speaking, 1992; Jan James, Public Speaking - 1994; Chad Rieck, Lonny Miller and Nathan Pottinger, Pro-gram of Activities, 1994; Hilaree Freml, D.D. Mof-fitt, and Heidi Calvin, Pro-gram of Activities, 2000; Nicole Stoll, Andy Jennett and Laura Baker, Program of Activities in 2006, and Donovan Richardson in the Freshmen Creed contest in 2007; Haley Stalcup, Job Interview in 2011; Brooke Thelen, Public Speaking 2013; Maddie Travis, Radio Broadcasting in 2014.

Jan James won the 1995 Central Regional Pub-lic Speaking competition and placed second nation-ally. Eleven members have finished second in State

Public Speaking, Extempo-raneous Speaking, Radio Broadcasting, Program of Activities team, and Fresh-men Creed Speaking com-petitions. They were Kevin McGlothlen in 1981, Kevin Eblen in 1983, Tim Loudon in 1985, Alan Bennett (Pub-lic Speaking), Scott Finn (Extemporaneous Speak-ing) in 1990; Erin Wilson (Public Speaking) in 1993, Gerry Miller (Creed Speak-ing) in 2002, Sam Johnson in Radio Broadcasting and Megan Brown, Jacque Jay, and Patrick Walsh (POA) in 2005, and Jason Lents, Ni-cole Stoll and Eric Bradley (POA) in 2007,

In the official leadership speaking contests, the fol-lowing have competed on the state level: twenty-two Program of Activities teams, eleven extemporaneous speakers, seventeen parlia-mentary procedure teams, nine Freshmen Conduct of Meeting teams, twenty pub-lic speakers, eight Freshmen Creed Speakers, thirteen Radio Broadcasting com-petitors, three Ag Sales con-testants, and seven job inter-view leadership contests.

Other contest accomplish-ments, since 1979, include fifty-three members advanc-ing officer books to state competition. The following placed second in the State

HISTORY:

Please seeHISTORY, Page 8

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Reporter Scrapbook Con-test: Kari Van Gelder, 1991; Matt Moberg; Brett Moffitt, 2002; Candace Weeda, 2007; Rachel Griffith in both 2008 and 2009; Mallory Griffith winning tops scrapbook in 2011. Trista Ide’s and Ash-ley Hartsook’s reporter’s scrapbooks placed third in 1997 and 2006 respectively. Amanda James, Francine Jackson, and Mallory Tra-vis won the State Reporter’s Scrapbook Contest in 1998, 2000, and 2003 respectively. In the Des Moines Register Chapter Reporter Award competition Heidi Osche, Scott Finn, Kari Van Gelder (Kari also had the second place reporter’s scrapbook in 1991), Jan James, Mi-chelle Saville, Cali Cross, Rachel Griffith, and Mal-lory Griffith were named the state’s top reporter in 1988, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2008, and 2011 respec-tively. Trista Ide and Fran-cine Jackson were named the Iowa runner-up in 1997 and 2000. Mallory Griffith was the winning scrapbook in 2011. Amanda James, Taften Kuhl, and Candace Weeda placed third in 1998, 2003, and 2007. Haley Stal-cup was named the top re-porter in the ASTM/SAE Reporter Award compete-tion in 2010. Jacque Jay became the first chapter reporter to place first in

the ASTM/SAE Reporter Award sponsored by the Iowa FFA Alumni Asso-ciation in 2004. Donovan Richardson became the first Creston Chapter member to have the chapter’s secre-tary’s book place as high as second in state competition in 2009.

Two hundred and sixty-two members have ad-vanced proficiencies to the state level with fifty-four state and three national win-ners being named. Brian Priest won both state and national proficiency com-petition in 1986 in the area of Soil and Water Conser-vation. Brian Bolton was named the national win-ner in outdoor recreation in 1998, and Andy Jennet won the nation in the pro-ficiency area of Turfgrass Management in 2008. Other members who have been recognized as national pro-ficiency finalists include Levi Buxton in Agricultural Mechanics/Technical Place-ment, and Caleb Hoakison in Outdoor Recreation in 1998 and 2001 respectively, Michael Hilger in Environ-mental Science and Natu-ral Resource Placement in 2003, and Tim Jennett in the area of Landscape Manage-ment Placement in 2004.

Other state proficiency winners include Scott Rea-sland, Outdoor Recreation, 1985; Chuck Denton, Ag-riculture Processing, 1986;

Rob Evans, Agriculture Placement, 1990; Brad James, Wildlife Manage-ment; 1995; Shamus Ste-phens, Equine Production, 1996; Ann Moberg, Forestry Production, 1996; Brian Bolton, Outdoor Recre-ation Entrepreneur, 1997, Michelle Saville, Ag Sales & Service Placement, 1997; Levi Buxton, Agricultural Mechanics, 1998; Mike Tay-lor, Beef Placement, 1998; Philip Moberg, Outdoor Recreation, 1998; Cody Purdum, Diversified Crop Production, 1998, Brian Bolton, Wildlife Manage-ment, 1998; Nathan Studer, Beef Placement, 1999; Tan-ner Kuhl, Forestry Place-ment, 1999; Alyssa Frank-lin, Sheep Entrepreneur; Caleb Hoakison, Outdoor Recreation; Philip Moberg, Agricultural Sales & Ser-vice Placement; Jill Tussey, Specialty Animal Entrepre-neur, 2000; Taften Kuhl*, Forestry; Aaron Hoyt, Beef Production Placement; Matt McNichols, Agricultural Sales Placement, Cody Wal-tersdorf, Diversified Crop Production Placement; Chad Ide, Diversified Crop Production Entrepreneur-ship; Brad Crill Outdoor Recreation, Jill Tussey in Specialty Animal Place-ment, 2001; Tim Jennett, Turf & Lawn Management Placement, Taften Kuhl* in Landscape Management Placement, 2002; Mike Hil-

ger Environmental Science/Natural Resource Place-ment, Cole Miller, Turf-grass Management, Taften Kuhl*, Community Devel-opment, Derek Quam in the area of Poultry Production Placement , 2003; Taften Kuhl,* Environmental Sci-ence & Natural Resources Placement; Cory Hoakison, Ag Sales & Service; Cody Bailey, Beef Placement; Lindsay Loomis, Swine Placement; Tim Jennett, Landscape Management Placement, Tyler Mahan in the area of Ag Sales Ser-vice Placement, 2004; Andy Jennett, Turf grass Man-agement Placement; Kyle

Thelen, Outdoor Recre-ation Entrepreneurship; Tyrell Miller, Grain Produc-tion Placement, and Ashley Hartsook, Equine Entrepre-neurship (*Kuhl-4time state winner), 2006; Jason Lents, Beef Placement; Cameron Weeda, Forage Placement, and Andy Jennett in Turf-grass Management Place-ment, 2007; Maggie Thelen, Equine Entrepreneurship; and Jason Lents in For-age Production Placement, 2008; Todd Ramaeker, Grain Production Place-ment; Colton Dunphy, Poul-try Production Placement, and Ethan Harris in Agri-

cultural Sales Placement, 2009; Ayla Peppmeier, Di-versified Livestock Produc-tion, Todd Ramaeker in Di-versified Crop Production in 2010, and Darin Hatfield in Agricultural Sales Place-ment in 2014.

By promoting leader-ship, skill development, and community involvement, the Creston FFA looks for many more success stories to come. It is the hope of its membership that the next 64 years will bring as much growth and successes as have the years since the chapter was founded in 1951.

HISTORY:

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December 12th marked a first for the Creston FFA Chapter as 3 members com-peted in the Iowa Cattle-men’s Foundation Beef Scholarship Extravaganza. Senior, Tyler Waddingham and juniors Gracie Russell and Sydney Dunphy tested their beef industry knowl-edge. These members were responsible for knowing and understanding processes in-volved in the beef industry, include: handling and health, nutrition, marketing, seed-stock merchandizing, job interview, keep-cull replace-ments heifers, reproduction, credit and finance, beef in-dustry issues, and beef man-agement challenge.

The Iowa Cattlemen’s Foundation hosts the Beef Scholarship Extravaganza, which offers more than $7,600 in scholarship awards. This contest is different from a regular judging contest as it incorporates all facets of the beef industry, not to mention it is very challeng-ing and takes many hours of preparation. Tyler Wad-dingham shares what he has gained from the contest, “I

feel like what I have learned through my experience in the Beef Extravaganza will benefit me in the future as I have gained a wealth of knowledge about different areas of the beef industry.” Gracie Russell adds, “This experience has made me re-alize how many job oppor-tunities are available in the beef industry; it has sparked my interest in pursing a ca-reer in the beef industry.” And Sydney Dunphy said “From the contest I real-ized I knew more about the beef industry than what I gave myself credit for and I stepped out of my comfort zone by giving a presenta-tion to the judges.”

The contest is open to ju-nior and senior members; both Gracie and Sydney plan to compete in the con-test again in 2015. The Iowa Cattlemen’s Foundation made the contest possible by securing funding from these supporters: Land O’Lakes Purina Feeds, Farm Credit Services of America, Iowa Beef Breeds Council, and Iowa Cattlemen’s Founda-tion.

Creston FFA competes in Beef Scholarship Extravaganza

For many years, the Creston FFA Chapter has prided itself on enhancing the beauty of the Creston community by plant-ing trees and has been recog-nized by organizations at the local, state and national levels. It is important to the mem-bers of the chapter to give to the community now so that it will continue to be a beautiful place to live and not to forget, we have a lot of fun planting trees!

Mr. Galen Zumbach is an important partner in the chap-ter’s tree planting as began the chapter’s tradition and contin-ues to volunteer to write grants for the chapter to secure fund-ing for the planting projects. Mr. Zumbach also helps find locations in the community that would benefit from new

plantings and or replacements trees. Creston FFA partners with Trees Forever granting program as well as Earl May to purchase the trees and assist with the planting design.

In the fall of 2014, Creston FFA planted trees at three lo-cations, including: McKinley Park, Graceland Cemetery, and Creston High School. The selection of tree specimens for the plantings are both for function as well as diversifi-cation. Diversifying the tree specie population has been a focused effort to avoid an over population of one tree and run the risk of disease or pest out break, such is the case of the Emerald Ash Borer. A wide variety of deciduous shade trees and coniferous trees have been planted.

The Tree Tradition Continues

Senior member, Chad Lamb, and junior member, Rebecca Watson finish planting a White Pine tree in the center lane of the main entrance at Graceland Cemetery.

Pictured (left to right) are upperclassmen FFA members Sydney Dunphy, Tayler Pettit, Cameron Leith, and Wyatt Thompson working together to plant trees on a crisp fall morning.

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Supervised Agricultural Experience, SAE for short, is a project that all FFA members conduct in order to be considered an active member. SAEs are an inte-gral part of the FFA learn-ing model as it provides the opportunity for the mem-bers to practice skills and knowledge gained from the classroom and apply them to real situation that are mean-ingful to the member. Such projects are both traditional and non-tradition in nature, for the Creston FFA Chap-ter there is a combination of both.

The Iowa State Fair pro-vides an outstanding oppor-tunity for FFA members to exhibit the work they have put into their SAEs through-out the year. Creston FFA members were particularly active in livestock projects this year, having 6 members exhibiting livestock and one member serving as a grand-stand usher. Venues like the Iowa State Fair provide members networking, skill building, and life experienc-es that cannot be mimicked in the classroom.

Creston FFA members exhibiting at the Iowa State Fair were extremely success-ful with Melissa Lindley win-ning the FFA Horse show barrel racing event as well as many blue ribbons awarded

in performance classes. Jes-sica Beatty received 4th place overall in the ranch horse please division, 3rd place in her 2-year old halter class, and 5th place in 2-year old pleasure class. Tiffany Beatty exhibited the 2nd place 2-year old halter class and 3rd place in her ranch horse pleasure class. In the beef arena Jordyn Walsh place second with her Charo-lais breeding heifer and Lane Miller placed 4th in his com-mercial breeding heifer class. Gracie Russell exhibited 3rd place and 4th place were her market lambs.

Tyler Waddingham was

selected by the Iowa FFA Association to serve as an Iowa State Fair Grandstand Usher. Waddingham spent the entire period of the Iowa State Fair serving the fair board and fair goers by manning the entrance gates, distributing fair programs, and most importantly help-ing people find their seats for the grandstand concerts. Through this experience, Tyler networked with FFA members throughout the state and interacted with Iowa State Fair and agricul-tural industry leaders and not to forget a few celebri-ties!

Creston FFA members highlight SAE Projects at state level

Creston FFA member, Gracie Russell, pictured (middle exhibitor) exhibiting market lambs at the 2014 Iowa State Fair.

Tuesday, September 30th, marked a first for the Creston and Wayne-Co-rydon FFA chapters as to-gether they hosted the first multi Career Development Event (CDE) for the South Central FFA District. Over 400 members from 22 school gathered at the Clarke County Fairgrounds in Osceola to participate in 5 different events – live-stock evaluation, horse evaluation, dairy foods evaluation, farm business management exam, junior quiz and senior quiz.

Career Development Events (CDE) provides op-portunities for FFA mem-bers to apply their knowl-edge and skill attained in the classroom to situations that require evaluation and reasoning. CDEs are de-

signed to test members’ ag-ricultural abilities that are pertinent for securing agri-cultural careers.

Creston FFA Advisor, Kelsey Bailey, said “There is a need in our area to pro-vide a venue such as the fall CDE day to get our new members interested in the contests as well challenge the skills of our older mem-bers.” Dan May, Wayne-Corydon FFA Chapter Advisor, added “We have had the event idea since last fall, over the summer we worked to move the idea forward and with the right connections, we were able to make the event pos-sible.”

The Creston FFA Chap-ter faired very well at the September contests as the horse judging team earned

first place with Cade Vicker earning first place indi-vidual honors and Taylor Sorrells earning second place individual honors. The livestock judging team also represented Creston very well earning 3rd place team; Tyler Waddingham earning first place individu-al honors, Wyatt Thompson earned 3rd place individual and Dalten Bierle earned 10th place individual. When asked, Wyatt Thom-spon had this to say about his participation in judging livestock, “I enjoy judging (livestock) because I have the chance to challenge my-self and see just how good I am at picking out the best stock. I raise cattle with my dad, so having an eye for cattle is important to me.”

South Central FFA Chapters Host Over 400 Members

Pictured is Creston FFA livestock and horse judging team members that competed at the 2014 Fall CDE day hosted by the Creston and Wayne Corydon FFA Chapters. Members are (front): Taylor Sorrells, Savannah Hartman, Cade Vicker, Macy Evans, Gracie Russell; (middle) Jordan Moreland, Nathan Pudenz, Dalten Bierle, Wyatt Thompson, Zach Hoffman; (back) Kaden Wilson and Tyler Waddingham.

Proud to support our local youth - the leaders of tomorrowProud to support our local youth - the leaders of tomorrow

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Creston News Advertiser — Monday, February 23, 2015— Page 11c

Macy Evans, Madison Skarda, Savannah Hartman, Mattie Wheeler, Ashley Harris, Brooke Thelen, Will Gordon, Wyatt Thompson, Zach Hoffman, Chad Lamb, Darin Hatfield, Jacob Pow-ers, Nathan Pudenz, and Darrian Fischer know first-hand why “Go All Out” was the theme for the 87th National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. The convention’s theme symbol-ized the agricultural educa-tion organization’s mission to spark the passion and purpose to prepare students for success throughout their lives. More than 60,000 FFA members, advisors, support-ers, and guests were in atten-dance at the annual conven-tion held October 28th thru November 1st.

The Creston FFA Chapter received a 2-Star National Chapter Award for its out-standing efforts in promot-ing and working toward the development of its members, chapter, and community by developing individual and cooperative activities that enhanced its members’ life skills; promoting its ability to develop a positive image, and interaction with support groups through cooperative and organized activities; and its developed community partnership in improving economic, environmental and human resources.

The chapter stressed the development of its mem-bers, chapter, and commu-

nity through a wide variety of projects. During the past school year the chapter con-ducted over 150 activities lo-cally, attended 15 leadership workshops and conventions, participated in over a doz-en judging events, and had members compete in con-tests above the local level.

Chapter activities Help-ing Hands, Make Creston Green, and Christmas holi-day activities have been identified as programs as-sisting in Creston FFA’s suc-cess in being recognized as one of Iowa’s top 25 chap-ters. The chapter’s Helping Hands program provided the opportunity for FFA mem-bers to team up with special needs students and assist in their motor and communica-tive skill development. It’s Christmas holiday activities, including the CHS student body, involved purchas-ing presents for children, the collection of toys, and canned goods. The canned goods and toys were given to the community pantry for distribution during the holi-day season.

During the past school year, the chapter conducted a number of safety activi-ties involving hundreds of area youth. Safety programs included its annual Bicycle Safety Program and rodeo where helmets were pro-vided to participating youth. Hunter, Farm, and Hallow-een Safety program presen-tations were also presented.

The chapter also assisted with elementary counselors in conducting a “Red Ribbon Week” Drug Safety Aware-ness program for the school’s elementary students.

Members attending were also involved in several na-tional leadership workshops, which provided opportuni-ties for personal growth and leadership development.

Convention participants also had the opportunity to listen to Nick Vujicic, who spoke first hand of overcoming ad-versity as we was born with-out arms nor legs. Members learned from Mr. Vujicic about being a true friend, not merely a friend on the sur-face and how this friendship is meaningful and has such an impact on others. Vujicic

also stressed the importance of living a good life, doing things for others, and the gift of serving others.

Future education and ca-reer exploration also was a key component of the con-vention. Students attending visited hundreds of exhibi-tors that provided informa-tion about educational and career possibilities held at

the concurrent National FFA Alumni Convention and the National Agricultur-al Career Show. In addition to Convention highlights, members also embarked on a historical tour of the Marengo Caves, a National Historical site, and for fun members tested their driving abilities at the indoor go-kart racing facility.

“Go All Out!” marked the 87th National FFA Convention

Creston FFA members pictured in front of Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky while attending the 87th National FFA Convention. Members are: (front) Macy Evans, Madison Skarda, Savannah Hartman, Mattie Wheeler, Ashley Harris, and Brooke Thelen; (back row) Will Gordon, Wyatt Thompson, Zach Hoffman, Chad Lamb, Darin Hatfield, Jacob Powers, Nathan Pudenz, and Darrian Fischer .

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Creston FFA members, Madison Travis and Re-becca Watson, are the chap-ter’s Senior and Junior Iowa State Fair Cowgirl Queen candidates for 2014. Travis and Watson will represent the Creston FFA Chapter at the Iowa State Fair Cowgirl Queen competition on Fri-day, August 8th, 6:30 p.m., held in the Jacobson Exhibi-tion Center.

The chapter holds and annual cowgirl queen show for interested Creston FFA members. Cowgirl queen contestants are evaluated on their poise and horseman-

ship skills in the arena. Judg-ing includes 50% on beauty, attractiveness and appro-priateness of Western attire and 50% on horsemanship of the rider (not the horse). In addition, contestants were evaluated on their ability to demonstrate the “Queen Sa-lute” and perform a riding pattern.

Rebecca Watson, daughter of Carl and Donna Watson, was crowned Creston FFA’s Junior Cowgirl Queen and Madison Travis, daughter of Jamie and Megan Travis, was crowned Creston FFA’s Senior Cowgirl Queen.

Two local royalty to represent the Creston FFA Chapter at the Iowa State Fair

Pictured are Creston FFA’s 2014 Iowa State Fair Cowgirl Queen candidates, Rebecca Watson (junior candidate, left) and Madison Travis (senior candidate). Travis and Watson will compete on August 8th at the Iowa State Fair for the Iowa State Fair Cowgirl Queen title.

Each year the new Cres-ton FFA Chapter officer team takes some time to get to know each other just a little better and learns how to function as a team. In the summer of 2014, the chap-ter participated in an officer training at the Iowa FFA Enrichment Center, that

was lead by Rachel Kagay, the Iowa Enrichment Center Leadership Development Coordinator. During the retreat the officer learned about their personality types thorough True Colors activi-ties, worked together using verbal and non-verbal com-munication skills, and even

tested their balance and trust of each other on the board walk challenge! A fun morning led to a fun af-ternoon in Des Moines.

The remainder of the of-ficer retreat was all about having FUN! The chapter officers know they have along year of hard work

and dedication ahead of them, so summer is time to kick back and have fun to-gether. The team had a wet but fun afternoon at Adven-tureland Amusement Park at Altoona and then took in a movie at the mall. We believe that hard work de-serves a reward!

A little bit of team building for the Creston FFA Officer Team

Chapter officers Madison Skarda, Macy Evans, Wyatt Thompson, Savannah Hartman, and Chad Lamb work together to draw a picture while their hands are tied together – that is tough team work!

All officers worked together in mastering the board walk activity. The purpose of this activity was to have all offi-cers switch ends of the board without any officers falling off – so challenging and so much fun!

To end the day the officers stopped in for a late night movie. The officers pictured include: Savannah Hartman, Madison Skarda, Macy Evans, Darin Hatfield, Chad Lamb, Darian Fischer, Bryce Briley, Brooke Thelen, and Wyatt Thompson.

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Creston FFA keeps busy at the Union County FairThe last week of July is

always an exciting and fun time for the Creston FFA Chapter at it is Fair Time! Many the chapter’s members spend hours and hours at the fairgrounds, exhibiting their SAE projects, conducting an agriculture education booth during Kid’s Day, working the food stand, sponsoring agriculture Olympics, help-ing with the kids pedal pull, and hosting the livestock judging contest.

The Union County Fair is an excellent opportunity for chapter members to display the hard work and dedica-tion they have had through-out the year in raising their livestock. Whether it is cat-tle or chickens, our members put many hours in properly feeding and caring for the livestock. Many of the chap-ter members have began and or expanded their livestock operations while in FFA. Members participate in beef, swine, sheep, goat, horse, and small animal production. What members acquired through SAE projects equips them with employability and life skills.

Our chapter has focused on bringing education and fun to the Union County Fair. We sponsor a booth at Kids Day that is called the “Ag Zone”. At this interac-tive display we focused on teaching about agriculture products and careers, as well as safety for kids when on

the farm and around equip-ment. At the 2014 Union County Fair the members conducted demonstrations a gravity flow wagon, showing the children what can hap-pen if you play in the wagon and when grain moves. We have also demonstrated to children the hazard of be-ing in a grain bin and how if trapped in grain it restricts a person’s ability to breathe. We have created a dem-onstration using a 5 gallon bucket filled with corn and a balloon taped to a straw. Children begin by blow-ing up a balloon, this is like their lungs filling with air. The participant then tapes a deflate balloon to a straw. The participant buries the balloon that is attached to the straw in the corn, they then try and blow up the bal-loon. When the balloon is buried in the corn it is very hard to blow it up, this gives them the experience of how a person cannot breathe if trapped in grain.

In addition to the “Ag Zone” Creston FFA also sponsors the livestock judg-ing contest for youth and adults. This contest has been a long time tradition for the chapter and is viewed as very important learning tool. The livestock judging contest at the County Fair provides and opportunity for FFA mem-bers to teach younger kids, and future members, how to use livestock knowledge and

skill to evaluate animals. In FFA we call contest such as livestock judging a Career Development Event (CDE).

As always, the County Fair is a place to have FUN! To help create fun at the Coun-ty Fair, Creston FFA assists with the Kid’s Pedal pull. At the pedal pull the chapter assists the event coordina-tor with managing children, passing out ribbons and tro-phies, and best of all give out candy! New this year was the ag Olympics. The Creston FFA officer team came up with the idea of an afternoon of good old fashioned fun with an ag Olympics. Activi-ties Ag Olymics included: 3 legged race, egg and spoon, a relay through hay bales, a re-lay dressed in chore clothes, and a farm animal search in a bucket of woodchips and water. Ag Olympics was a lot of fun and will be spon-sored again for the upcoming County Fair.

Chapter officers, Macy Evans, and Savannah Hartman test their skill on the Ag Olympics hay bale obstacle course at the 2014 Union County Fair.

Creston FFA mem-bers: Darrian Fischer, Mason Kinsella, and Trevor Marlin spent an afternoon volun-teering at the Union County Fair kids pedal tractor pull.

Chapter officers, Macy Evans, and Savannah Hartman test their skill on the Ag Olympics hay bale obstacle course at the 2014 Union County Fair.

Page 14c— Creston News Advertiser — Monday, February 23, 2015 Creston News Advertiser — Monday, February 23, 2015 — Page 15c

Years in FFA: 4College: Iowa State University (CALS);

Food ScienceFavorite Memory: National FFA Con-

vention 2013, Experiencing FFA on a whole new level, getting to know other Creston FFA members better, meeting FFA members from across the country and hilarious road trips!

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: FFA dances and

bonfires.Future Plans: Attend Southwestern Com-

munity College, major in Agriculture Busi-ness and compete on the trap shooting team.

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: State FFA Con-

ventionFuture Plans: Undecided on a college but

will major in Agriculture.

Years in FFA: 2Favorite FFA Memory: My favorite

memory was roller skating and having a piz-za party at the school.

Future Plans: I will attend Graceland University to play volleyball and major in biology or a health major.

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: My favorite

memory would be State Convention my sophomore year and hanging out with my friends there.

Future Plans: Attend Iowa State Univer-sity and major in culinary science.

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: National FFA

Convention trips and chapter bonfires.Future Plans: Attend Southwestern Com-

munity College and major in Agriculture Business.

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: Staying up until 4

a.m. at State FFA competition cramming in last minute practices for contests.

Future Plans: I will attend Iowa State University and major in Aerospace Engi-neering.

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: National FFA

Convention trips and chapter bonfires.Future Plans: I plan to farm.

Dillon Bailey Bryce Briley Savannah Dawn Ide Hartman

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: My favorite FFA

memory would have to be State FFA Convention my sophomore year, Conner Pals, Tayler Pettit, and I placed 4th in Agriculture Communications – and State Convention is always fun!

Future Plans: I will run track and cross coun-try at Northwest Missouri State University and major in Agriculture Business.

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: State ConventionsFuture Plans: Attend NWMSU or UNI

major in business finance

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: Farm Business Man-

agement contestFuture Plans: Attend Southwestern Commu-

nity college to major in ag business.

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: State ConventionFuture Plans: Attend Iowa State Universi-

ty and major in chemical engineering.

Years in FFA: 4 Favorite FFA Memory: My favorite mem-

ories in FFA are either attending National FFA Convention or swing dancing.

Future Plans: After graduation, I will attend Southwestern Community College and then I plan to continue my education at a university, majoring in elementary education.

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: My favorite mem-

ory was getting ready at Nation FFA Conven-tion at the hotel when the power went out due to a storm.

Future Plans: Attend the University of Tennessee at Martin and major in animal sci-ence.

Years in FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: Agriculture Issues

team contest my freshman year. We won the contest at districts and got a gold rating at state.

Future Plans: Attend Southwestern Com-munity College for 2 years and transfer to a 4 year college.

Years n FFA: 4Favorite FFA Memory: Rolling down the

Kentucky interstate and the vehicle breaking down.

Future Plans: Undecided on a university, will major in animal science.

Maria MostekJake Miller Jacob Powers Madison Skarda

Chad Lamb

Tyler WaddinghamTyson TuckerBrooke Thelen

Ashley Harris

Tayler Pettit

Darin Hatfield Kyle JennettNicole Haley

2015 FFA Senior Salutes

Creston Chamber of Commerce208 W. Taylor, Hwy 34 • Creston • 641-782-7021

www.crestoniowachamber.com [email protected]

Thank you to our Creston FFA Chapter for their involvement in our

community


Livestock and horse evalu-ation has been a valued skill of stockman for many years, and so too is it important to FFA members with livestock and equine interests. Each year, Creston FFA members have teams participating in livestock and horse evalu-ation Career Development Events (CDE) at the local, state, and regional levels. The skills gained from this CDE goes far beyond the placing of animals, the skills young people acquire are evaluation, reasoning, analy-sis, and finally making a de-cision which is the animal placing. In addition, mem-bers learn to communicate and defend their reason for

placing animals in the con-test when presenting face-to- face oral reasons to the judge.

Creston FFA had an out-standing year judging both livestock and horses at state and regional contests. In the fall of 2014 Creston FFA members, Kaden Wilson, Macy Evans, and Tyler Wad-dingham judged livestock at the FFA state livestock CDE at the Hansen Animal Learn-ing Center on the Iowa State University Campus in Ames, Iowa. Our chapter co-host-ed a multi-CDE event on the Clarke County Fairgrounds in Osceola, where the horse judging team earned 1st place with Cade Vicker earn-

ing 1st place individual and the livestock judging team placed 4th. At the North-west Missouri State CDE day, our horse judging team placed 2nd with Taylor Sor-rells earning 1st place over-all individual. The livestock judging team at Northwest earned top ten finish with Tyler Waddingham earning 1st place in swine evaluation. And to start the 2015 judg-ing year the livestock team consisting of Tyler Wadding-ham, Gracie Russell, Macy Evans, and Kaden Wilson placed 9th overall out of 31 teams and placed 4th in team reasons at the Iowa Beef Expo.

Career Development Events – Horse and Livestock Judging

Northwest Missouri State University CDE – Creston FFA members compete at the Northwest Missouri State University CDE event; team members included: Tyler Waddingham, Kaden Wilson, Chad Lamb, Wyatt Thompson and Darin Hatfield. The horse judging team was: Rebecca Watson, Jordan Moreland, and Taylor Sorrells.

Like most FFA chap-ters across the nation, fall is the time for fruit and cheese sales. Creston FFA officers are respon-sible for deciding on sale dates, distributors, and set sales goals for the year. In 2014, Creston FFA part-nered with Harmison’s Fundraising to sell cookie dough, meats, cheeses, soups, and candies and partnered locally with Hy-Vee as the citrus supplier

and Fareway as our apple supplier.

Although fruit sales might not be the favorite activity of FFA members, they understand the im-portance of the fundrais-ing for our chapter as fruit sales is the chapter’s big-gest fundraiser of the year. In 2014, the chapter offi-cers set a goal for members to sell 20 items; members averaged 23 items. Funds raised from the chapter’s

fruit and cheese sales goes towards the operat-ing budget for the year. Expense for the chapter include travel to leader-ship conferences and con-ventions, awards, contests, community service activi-ties, and special project conducted throughout the year. The chapter appre-ciates all the community support and the member’s efforts in our annual fruit and cheese fundraiser.

Fun Times and Fundraising

Creston FFA members are prepared at 8 a.m. for unloading the truck loads of apples, oranges, grapefruit, clementines, pears, peanuts and much more into the shop – it is a busy morning!

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Keeping the roadways beautifulFall is the Creston FFA chapter’s annual highway clean up. Creston FFA cleans a stretch

of US Highway 25 north of Creston and just south of Orient. When it comes to cleaning the highway, the old saying “Many hands make light work” is the theme that is stressed to the members. A caravan of cars and pickups leave the Creston High School parking lot to make their way north out of Creston to begin the annual trash pick up. While working members get many waves, honks, and thumbs up in approval of the efforts in keeping Iowa beautiful.

It has become an annual tradition to follow the highway clean up with a chili feed at Cedar Park in rural Union County. As usual, while daylight is still available, a chapter football game is played on the lawn that always leads to bragging rights in the chapter of who wins the big game. In cool fall night air a bonfire is started and members huddle round, telling stories of memories for last year and plans for the new year.

Creston FFA members huddle around the bonfire following the annual fall highway clean up, many laughs and memories are shared around the bonfire.

Creston FFA members (left to right): Brooke Thelen, Jordan Moreland, Savannah Hartman, Cali Fogelson, and Olivia Hartman scan the ditches of highway 25 in search of trash to pick up.

Following the fall highway clean up, Creston FFA members hold a chili feed and bonfire at Cedar Park in rural Union County.

Creston FFA held the annual fall highway clean up in early October.

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Agriculture Industry ToursTo start the school year, Creston FFA planned a trip to the Farm Progress show through

the coordination of SWCC’s Career and Technical assistance program. It was a very wet start to the morning as members loaded the charter busses in pouring rain. Being an opti-mistic group we started the trip to Boone for the show and then received word the show had been cancelled. What seemed like a disappointing situation turned in to a great opportunity to tour local agricultural industry.

A phone call here and a phone call there lead to the tour of Van Wall John Deere Equip-ment Dealership in Perry, Iowa and a tour of Hawkeye Breeders in Adel, Iowa. Both busi-

nesses were very welcoming of the FFA members and hospitable. While touring Van Wall, members learned of the advancement in technology of tractors, implements, combines, and even repairs. Hawkeye Breeders has been on the brink of the latest technology in the ani-mal science industry for years, as they have been leaders in collecting and freezing cattle genetics since 1969. Members were amazed to learn of the number of units of semen housed at the facility, the number of standing bulls, and the amount of international business that is conducted through Hawkeye Breeders. At both businesses members had their questions of the future of agriculture and career security answered by the leaders of agriculture industry.

Creston FFA members (left to right) Trevor Marlin, Kolby Tomas, Dalten Bierle, Paige Parsons and Mykenna Hribal look into tank filled with liquid nitrogen, the tank holds thousands of straws of bull semen.

Creston FFA members participated in a fall agriculture industry tour in 2014.

Creston FFA members and FFA members from surrounding schools attended a fall agri-culture careers tour in 2014. Picture are members looking at a brand new John Deere combine at Van Wall Equipment dealership in Perry, Iowa.

Cow Calf Conference – The 2014 Cow Calf Conference was held at the event center in Ottumwa, Iowa. Creston FFA members attending the conference included: Paige Parsons, Shannon Bierle, Nicole Haley, Madison Skarda, Kayla Luther, Will Gordon, Chad Lamb, and Dakota Burgmaier. Members walked through the vendor show, where over 100 businesses and organizations had informational booths, as well as sat in on learning session, such as the use of drones on the farm and how corn becomes soda.

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Helping Hands and Happy HeartsCreston FFA had an ongo-

ing Helping Hands program with Mrs. Simpson students at Creston High School. The spring of 2014 brought an end to the program but we still maintain friendships with the students from Mrs. Simpson’s program. Dur-ing the time of the program, Creston FFA members coor-dinated with Mrs. Simpson to plan small activities to conduct with her students. Projects usually were some type of craft and had a theme that went with a holiday or tradition that paired with the month.

The relationships de-veloped through Helping Hands were heart warming. Each spring Creston FFA would receive a graduation invitation from the students graduating from Mrs. Simp-son’s program. It was always fun to help the graduates cel-

ebrate and we felt honored to receive a special invita-tion. The chapter is search

for a new program to fill the void of our missed Helping Hands program.

In early spring, the project for Helping Hands was scrap-booking. Mattie Wheeler is pictured with Lizzy and Christian making their scrapbook pages.

Logan Pettit is pic-tured with Christian showing off his fin-ished scrapbook page.

A chilly fall afternoon was no match for Creston FFA’s school spirit as we pieced together the FFA home-coming parade float. Each year the chapter asks for members to volunteer time

to piece, paint, and create a homecoming float. The chapter enjoys taking part in a school wide, school pride activity and is an excellent way to get our members in-volved in the parade. Carl

Watson with AgriVision has volunteered his time and a tractor for the last 3 years to pull the float in the homecoming parade, we are thankful for his donation and support for our chapter.

2014 Homecoming Float

Creston FFA members putting the final touches on the 2014 homecoming parade float.

AgriVision and Carl Watson has been generous in their donation of a tractor and time for pulling the float in the homecoming parade. Isn’t it fitting that the FFA float is pulled by a tractor!

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Learning to evaluate soils is just one of the many op-portunities available to FFA members. Four Cres-ton FFA members gained valuable experience in de-veloping knowledge in soil evaluation by competing in the South Central District Soils Judging Contest held at Knoxville, where they

received a silver emblem award and placed 12th out of 27 teams.

The contest involved FFA members taking a general knowledge test and evaluating four soil pits. The evaluations involved soil conservation practices, determining soil texture and surface features, land

capability classifications, the evaluation of current and future management practices, and the suitability of the various soils present for non agricultural uses.

The Creston FFA mem-bers competing were: Will Gordon, Darin Hatfield, Ian Burns, and Nathan Pudenz.

Creston FFA members participating in the 2014 Soils Career Development event are (left to right): Nathan Pudenz, Darin Hatfield, Will Gordon, and Ian Burns. The team earned an silver award and placed 12th at the event.

Knoxville FFA hosts South Central District Soils Career Development Event

America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education initiative is sponsored by Monsanto, with the purpose to support education in the rural com-munities throughout the na-tion. Farmers have the op-portunity to nominate the school and organization of their choice to Monsanto, one school is selected from

the nominations from each county.

In 2014, Larry Bailey nominated the Creston FFA Chapter to be a recipient of the award. Monsanto do-nated $2,500 to the Creston FFA Chapter. The chap-ter used the funds to send members to leadership con-ferences at the state and

regional levels as well as purchase training materials for leadership and technical skill contest teams. Remain-ing funds will be applied to the purchase of hydroponics equipment that will be used for Plant Science course work and for student super-vised agriculture experience projects.

America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education

Creston FFA received the 2014 America’s Farmers Grow Rural Communities spon-sored by Monsanto. Pictured are: Cody Downing (Monsanto representative), Madison Skarda, Ashley Harris, Bill Messerole (Creston High School principal), Brooke, Thelen, Lane Miller, Darin Hatfield, and Larry Bailey (farmer who nominated the chapter).

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Making a difference, stu-dents visit with legislators, skills learned in the class-room applied in a world where citizenship is essen-tial.

Nearly 350 high school students wearing blue cor-duroy flooded the Iowa State Capitol Building in Des Moines on January 27. The students visited with legislators, exhibited skills learned in the agriculture classroom and learned the importance of citizenship. This was all part of the 30th Annual Iowa FFA Legisla-tive Symposium and FFA Day at the Capitol that more than 50 FFA chapters attended.

During the morning, FFA members had the opportu-nity to hear from leaders in the agriculture industry at the FFA Enrichment Cen-ter in Ankeny. Iowa Farm Bureau Federation Presi-dent Craig Hill, addressed the students concerning the future of Iowa’s agriculture and the importance of be-ing involved with statewide issues. The FFA members also heard remarks from Libby Crimmings of the World Food Prize on effec-tively advocating for agri-cultural education.

Following the legislative visits, members congregated at the World Food Prize for tours and to hear remarks

from Ambassador Kenneth Quinn of the World Food Prize. State FFA President Abrah Meyer read the Gov-ernor’s Proclamation identi-fying February 21-28 as Na-tional FFA Week in Iowa.

The 30th annual Iowa FFA Legislative Symposium and FFA Day at the Capitol is made possible with sup-port from the Iowa Farm

Bureau Federation through the Iowa FFA Foundation.

The Iowa FFA Associa-tion has 225 local FFA chap-ters with more than 14,200 FFA members. FFA is a national organization more than 610,000 student mem-bers preparing for lead-ership and careers in the science, business and tech-nology of agriculture. Local,

state and national programs provide opportunities for students to apply knowledge and skills learned in the classroom. FFA’s mission is to make a positive differ-ence in the lives of students by developing their poten-tial for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.

30th Annual Legislative Symposium & FFA Day at the Capitol

Creston FFA members are pictured with Representative Jack Drake while visiting the capitol at the 30th Annual Legislative Symposium. Pictured are (left to right): Representative Jack Drake, Brooke Thelen, Nicole Haley, Chad Lamb, Darrian Fischer, Madison Skarda, and Kayla Luther.

Planting a garden can be a fun and rewarding experience for youth and adults alike. Creston FFA hosted a booth at the 2014 Home and Garden Show, that encouraged chil-dren to get involved with gardening. At the booth, Cres-ton FFA members taught children how to make seed tape. Seed tape is a method for planting small seeds that are hard to see and hard to handle. The seed tape was made using toilet paper, turnip seeds, and Elmer’s glue. The process included placing dots of glue on the toilet paper, placing the seed on the dot of glue, and folding over the toilet papers. Once dried, the toilet paper can be rolled up and stored until ready for planting. When ready to plant, a furrow is made (the seed row), the seed tape is un-rolled inot the fur-row and covered with soil and watered. The toilet paper and Elmer’s glue disintegrate with water and weathering leaving the seed to germinate and grow. Not only is the seed tape a good planting method for children, it is also helpful for those that have troubles handling very small seeds.

Creston FFA also assisted at the YMCA Home and Gar-den show by directing traffic. Members assisted the park-ing staff in monitoring parking spaces and keeping the flow of traffic running smooth.

YMCA Home and Garden Show

Madison Skarda and Jacob Coke are pictured in front of the Creston FFA’s seed tape demonstration at the 2014 YMCA Home and Garden Show.

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Part of being a FFA mem-ber is lifelong leadership. In the spring of 2014, two senior FFA members, Lane Miller and Taylor Rice at-tended the state of Iowa’s Agriculture Leaders Dinner. While at the dinner, chapter members mingled with lead-ers in the industry, including senators and representatives from Iowa’s legislature and the governor of Iowa, Terry Branstad. At dinner, mem-ber sat at tables with various business leaders, including

Pioneer, Monsanto, John Deere, Vermeer, Tyson Foods, the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association CEO and Iowa Pork Producers representa-tive. Attending the Iowa Agriculture Leaders Dinner was an outstanding opportu-nity for Creston FFA mem-bers to learn of the issues facing today’s agricultural industry as well as learn of future agricultural career opportunities.

Creston FFA was invited to the Union County Farm

Bureau’s annual meeting. Members of the Creston FFA Chapter officer team attended the annual meet-ing. Many attendees were please to see the members in attendance and happy to see young people pursu-ing agricultural studies and careers. Members had the opportunity to listen to and meet one of Iowa’s top agri-cultural celebrities and the evening’s keynote speaker, Mike Pearson of Market to Market.

Creston FFA attends Agriculture Leadership Meetings

Farm Bureau annual meeting: Creston FFA member attended Union County Farm Bureau’s annual meeting at 3-Mile Lodge. Members are pictured with the host of IPTV’s Market to Market, Mike Pearson. Members are (left to right): Darin Hatfield, Brooke Thelen, Wyatt Thompson, Macy Evans, Market to Market host, Mike Pearson, Madison Skarda, Darrian Fischer, and Zach Hoffman.

Ag Leaders Dinner photo: Senior members, Lane Miller and Taylor Rice, represented the Creston FFA Chapter at the 2014 Iowa Agriculture Leaders Dinner held at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa.

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Most people think of trees as having values that can’t be expressed in dollars. They think of cool shade on a hot day, beautiful flowers in the spring, great fall color, or other, less tangible ben-efits. Some of the benefits of trees can be expressed in dollars, however.

According to the Ameri-can Forestry Association, trees have significant mon-etary benefits. They have found that a single tree that lives for fifty years can provide $57,151.00 in en-vironmental benefits such as reduced costs in air con-ditioning, heating, erosion control, and air pollution.

This is the lesson the Creston FFA members try to instill in every kindergar-ten student in the Creston school system when each student is provided a free tree seedling of their own to plant.

According to Creston FFA Advisor Kelsey Bai-ley, “It is neat to get pictures showing large evergreen trees from students who re-ceived or planted seedlings from our chapter when they were little and now, as high students, are reaping their environmental benefits.”

This past year over 400 White Spruce, Red and White Pines were individu-ally packaged in peat moss

and distributed to all kinder-garten students in the Cres-ton school system.

It is hoped these young people will plant, care for and watch how these young

seedlings impact their envi-ronment as they and the tree seedling grows to maturity.

In May 2014, 12 Creston FFA Chapter officers catered a morning breakfast to approximately 30 Creston high school staff. The breakfast was served in the home economics room. Members provided breakfast casseroles and pizza, muffins and breads, fruit, milk, coffee, and juice. Creston FFA celebrates the end of the year with the faculty break-fast to thank the faculty and staff for all they have done throughout the year.

Creston members give tree seedlings to kindergarteners

FFA/Faculty Breakfast Served

Both new and retiring Creston FFA Chapter officers pre-pare an appreciation breakfast each spring for all faculty and staff at Creston High School.

Pictured are St. Malachy kindergarten students receiving a seedling to plant.

Creston FFA members Macy Evans, Wyatt Thompson, Tyson Tucker and Darrian Fischer are pictured presenting to St. Malachy kindergar-ten students about the importance of trees and the trees they will be get-ting from the Creston FFA Chapter.

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Service, it is a focus of the Creston FFA Chapter. Often times when people think of FFA they envision the FFA members with their individual supervised agri-culture experience (SAE), feeding livestock, showing livestock, harvesting, plant-ing, working at an agricultur-ally related business – any yes, this is the picture of the individual FFA member. However, as a chapter we strive to serve our commu-nity and the people of our community.

The FFA motto is: “Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, and Living to Serve. Learning takes place in the classroom (Learning) through instruc-tion and discovery. Doing, doing is what the members go back home and apply from the classroom their own SAE projects. Earn-ing, members earn money or invest their time in activities that are agriculturally re-lated. This earning requires members to take records of their investments and earn-ings, teaching financial re-sponsibilities and personal management. Finally, Serv-ing. Serving is the oppor-tunity for members to work together or individually to make the world around us a better place to live. The FFA believes if service is a focus at a young age, then that need and desire to help one another will follow the

member throughout adult-hood. Creston FFA is a model of excellence for serv-ing the community.

There have been many service projects conducted throughout the year by the Creston FFA Chapter. We start the beginning of the year off by cleaning a stretch of Highway 25 be-tween Creston and Orient. What seems like a very long stretch of highway is actually a quick task as our members many hands make for light work. This year, following our clean up, members gath-ered at Cedar Park for some backyard football, chili feed, and bone fire.

In the fall, Creston FFA also helps the CARE organi-zation with Bright Eyes in the Park. A group of members is formed to gather straw bales from the Creston Livestock Auction as well as tables from the Eagles and then delivered to McKinley Park to set up for the event. Fol-lowing the conclusion of the event, members load all the bales and tables and return them to the respective loca-tions. Although this is only a small part of the Bright Eyes celebration, the chapter feels good about their contribu-tion and is happy to help such a worth cause.

The Christmas holiday sea-son brings forth a host of ser-vice traditions for the Cres-ton FFA Chapter. We start the season by helping deco-

rate the downtown Depot for the annual lighted Christ-mas parade. In the school, the chapter challenges their peers to take part in helping the community by collecting food donations, gently used toy donations, and adopting families. Our ‘Santa Can’ project partnered with CHS Student Government this season, both groups were thrilled with the turn out. One thousand three hundred and nineteen non-perishable food items were collected for the Creston food pan-try! Our ‘Santa’s Toybox’ provided 153 toys that were delivered to the neighbor-hood center for holiday giv-ing. And what is most heart warming, they chapter and many of CHS’s student body and organizations adopted 22 families this Christmas.

Christmas is also a time

for giving and what better gift is there than food. Cres-ton FFA helps the Creston Christmas Basket Club in the delivery and distribution of food baskets to the needy families in Creston and sur-rounding areas. The Christ-mas basket food activity is one of our members favor-ite activities. As Madison Skarda says “There is just this warm feeling that you get from this project that you don’t get other places.”

Living to serve, it is not only said in the Creston FFA Chapter it is practiced. Our members are commu-nity minded young people that want Creston to be the best it can be for all of us to live, work, and raise families. Our members are the lead-ers of tomorrow, the service they do today will continue on into tomorrow.

Earning to Live……Living to Serve

Bright Eyes photo: Creston FFA helped C.A.R.E set up for the Brighteyes in the Park Halloween celebration at McKinley Park. Members help set up tables and deliver straw bales. Members pictured include: Darrian Fischer, Tom Steinbach, Chad Lamb, Jordan Moreland, and Darin Hatfield.

Christmas Basket Club 2: Mattie Wheeler and Zach Hoffman take a moment to pose for a photo before assist-ing with the loading of food baskets for needy recipients.

Christmas Basket Club 3: Creston FFA members Macy Evans and Ashley Harris work together to find a Christmas Basket to deliver to a needy family in the Creston area.

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Decorate the depot 1: Creston FFA members (left to right) Gracie Russell, Sydney Dunphy (behind the tree), Cooper McDermott, and Tayler Pettit work together to assemble one of the many Christmas trees that make up the decorations at the depot.

Decorate the depot 2: Decorating the depot is a favorite activity of the Creston FFA Chapter. Late November the chapter decorates the depot in just before the annual Creston Lighted Christmas Parade. Decorating the depot is always a fun time for all!

Santa Can: Creston FFA partnered with Creston High School Student Government to challenge CHS to collect 1,000 non-perishable food items this holiday season. As you can tell, Creston FFA members are thrilled as 1,319 non-perishable food items were collected. Pictured are (left to right) Nicole Haley, Savannah Hartman, Cade Vicker, Madison Skarda, and Zach Hoffman.

Secret Santa: Sophomore, Logan Pettit, and freshman, Alexis Baker, helped load all of the presents collected for the 22 families that were adopted through Creston FFA’s Secret Santa program.

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Summer is a time for rest and relaxation but not for the Creston FFA Chapter. In July the Creston FFA Chapter met for the sum-mer meeting. Items covered at the summer meeting in-cluded County Fair activities and member duties as well

as approving the new year’s program of activities.

Following the meeting the chapter held a barbeque and bonfire at Cedar Park in Union County. Cedar Park has become a gather place for social activities for the chapter where there has

been many football games and capture the flag games played. Taking time for rec-reation is important for our chapter, we take time to re-ward the chapter for all of the hard work that has been put forth throughout the year.

Creston FFA holds monthly meetings, including meetings in the summer. Chapter officers conduct all meetings as well as prepare the agenda and officer reports for each meeting. Pictured in Creston FFA Chapter’s 2013-2013 president, Lane Miller.

Creston FFA holds kid’s pedal trac-tor pulls at two community events, Balloon Days in September and Creston Elementary’s PTO carni-val. This old chapter tradition is a favorite of many children and a favorite of our members too.

Creston FFA Summer Meeting and Barbeque Pedal Pulls -old chapter tradition

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Creston FFA partnered with Farmers Coop and Purina Feeds to conduct a poultry feeding trial. The chapter was responsible for the daily care and record keeping of the birds. The birds were provided by the Coop along with equipment and feed, while the chapter supplied the labor, water, and elec-tricity. The trial was con-ducted over 6 weeks with a final presentation given at SWCC to 4-H and FFA ex-hibitors interested in rais-ing meat birds to exhibit at the Union County Fair. The project was a great suc-cess and the chapter gained

knowledge and skill from the partnership with Farm-

ers Cooperative and Purina Feeds.

The Land O’Lakes Foundation has identified 21 regions nationwide to host an Answer Plot Community Garden in 2014. This program, in partnership with local co-ops, FFA chapters and Land O’Lakes own WinField agronomists, was created as part of an ongoing effort to help alleviate hunger in rural communities.

The goal of the program is to encourage multiple groups in various communities to grow, harvest and donate 150,000 servings of fresh product to local food shelves. Creston

FFA has partnered with Land O’Lakes in 2013 and 2014 to implement a community garden. Produce harvested from the garden is donated to the Creston Community Center. A wide variety of produce was planting in the garden, including: tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, radishes, sweet corn, eggplant, green peppers, and jalapenos. Each year chapter members learn new planting and management techniques to enhance the output of the gar-den.

Seven Creston FFA members were inducted into Creston National Honor Society in 2014. Members include: (left to right) Nicole Haley, Brooke Thelen, Ashley Harris, Adam Baker, Maria Mostek, Kyle Jennett, Taylor Rice (inducted 2013), Savannah Hartman, Zack Peppmeier (inducted 2013), and Jeremy Stoll (inducted 2013).

Creston FFA Partners with Land O’Lakes for a Community Garden

Creston FFA received the Land O’Lakes Community Garden grant in 2014. Accepting the grant are: Tyler Waddingham, Lane Miller, Brandon Parsons (Winfield Land O’Lakes representative), Byrce Brile and John Gravlin.

Purina Partners with Creston FFA for a Poultry Feed Trial

Creston FFA member, Mattie Wheeler is pictured transporting a chick from the growing tank to the scale to record weight. Creston FFA partnered with Farmers Cooperative and Purina Feeds to conduct a poultry feed trial during the spring of 2014. Chicks were cared for and managed by the chapter members, records were kept by chapter mem-bers, and members presented results of the trial to FFA and 4-H members interested in raising and showing meat birds at the Union County Fair.

Pictured is one of the chicks that were part of a feed trial conducted by Creston FFA in partnership with Farmers Cooperative and Purina Feed. Chicks were weighed every other day, both chick weights and feed consumption were recorded.

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Saturday, March 8th, 37 Creston FFA members at-tending the South Central District Leadership Con-vention in Chariton, Iowa, there the members success-fully participated in 11 lead-ership contests, accepted ac-ademic achievement award honors, and represented the chapter in delegate sessions as well as accepted the a Supreme National Chapter award.

Leadership contests are an opportunity for members to gain life skills that are applicable to many careers in and out of agriculture in-dustry. Two leadership con-tests from the Creston FFA Chapter have advances to the state level of competi-tion, the contests and the participants include: Mad-die Travis earning gold and advancing to state in Agri-culture Broadcasting; Ex-perience the Action team received gold and advance to state, they include Madi-son Skarda, Nicole Haley, Savannah Hartman, Ol-ivia Hartman, Chad Lamb, Darin Hatfield, and Logan Pettit. The top two partici-pants in each of the leader-ship contests advance to state, Creston had many gold rated contests and 3rd place finishes. Contest re-sults include: Brooke Thel-en, Chapter website (Gold); John Gravlin, Ashley Harris and Ann Waigand, Chapter Program (Gold); Macy Ev-

ans, Will Gordon, Morgan Shawler, Rebecca Watson, Trevor Marlin, Cody Tan-ner, and Mattie Wheeler, Conduct of Meetings (3rd Gold – Alternate for State); Emily Gravlin, Maria Mo-stek, Gracie Russell, Caitlin McIlravy, and Becca Ross, Parliamentary Procedures (3rd Gold – Alternate for State); Adam Baker, Jake Miller, Tyson Tucker, Dar-rian Fischer, Wyatt Thomp-son, Kruz Adamson, and Zach Hoffman, Agricul-tural Issues and Perceptions (Bronze); Kyle Jennett, Jake Miller, Emily Gravlin and Nicole Haley, Chapter Quiz

(Silver); Tyler Wadding-ham, Agricultural Sales (3rd Gold – Alternate for State); Lane Miller, Prepared Pub-lic Speaking (Gold); Taylor Rice, Job Interview (Gold), Secretary’s Book (Bronze); Madison Skarda and Savan-nah Hartman, Reporter’s Scrapbook (Silver).

Four of Creston FFA’s graduating seniors were awarded and recognized for their outstanding academic achievements during their FFA membership. Mem-bers receiving the Iowa FFA Academic achieve-ment award include: Adam Baker, Jeremy Stoll, Taylor

Rice, and Zack Peppmeier. Twelve of Creston FFA’s

junior and senior mem-bers have earned the high-est award presented by the Iowa FFA Association, the Iowa FFA Degree. Mem-bers must meet scholastic, leadership, and financial requirements to earn such and honor through the FFA Association. The 2014 Iowa FFA Degree recipients in-clude: Chad Lamb, Brooke Thelen, Darin Hatfield, Bryce Briley, Gavin Leith, Tyler Waddingham, Ashley Harris, Kyle Jennett, Madi-son Skarda, Savannah Hart-man, Jake Miller, and Jacob

Powers. Members will re-ceive their degree certificate and gold Iowa FFA Degree medallion at the Iowa FFA State Leadership Conven-tion in April on the campus of Iowa State University.

The Creston FFA Chap-ter continues to be recog-nized as one of the top 25 chapters in the State of Iowa by earning the Supreme Na-tional Chapter Award. The chapter has earned such prestigious recognition due to our continued efforts in building our members, our chapter, and our commu-nity. Creston will be recog-nized at the Iowa FFA State

Leadership Conference in April as well as the National FFA Convention in Octo-ber 2014, which is held in Louisville, Kentucky.

Creston FFA hosted the 2014 West Sub District con-test on Tuesday, February 25th. Creston hosted over 200 members, advisors, and guests for the first round of leadership contest competi-tion. Our chapter and the chapters in the west side of the South Central FFA Dis-trict thank all of the judges and volunteers that donated their time in making the evening a successful event.

Creston FFA advances Leadership Contests to state

Thirty-seven Creston FFA members participated in 13 leadership activities at he 2014 South Central District FFA Convention. Members gained knowledge and skill in various real to life events that will prove beneficial to the members as they secure careers in agricultural industry. Members pictured include: (front) Zach Hoffman, Savannah Hartman, Madison Skarda, Darin Hatfield, Trevor Marlin, Macy Evans, Caitlin McIlravy, Mattie Wheeler, Maria Mostek, Taylor Rice, and Morgan Shawler; (middle) Kruz Adamson, Wyatt Thompson, Logan Pettit, Olivia Hoffman, Nicole Haley, Gracie Russell, Becca Ross, Maddie Travis, Ann Waigand, Tyson Tucker, and Tyler Waddingham; (back) Zack Peppmeier, Jeremy Stoll, Dillon Bailey, Kyle Jennett, Lane Miller, Chad Lamb, Darrian Fischer, Adam Baker, Jake Miller, Cody Tanner, and Will Gordon. (Not pictures: John Gravlin, Emily Gravlin, Brooke Thelen, Rebecca Watson and Ashley Harris)

CNA-SS-02-23-2015

Documents

national ffa convention

national ffa organization

state ffa degree

ffa chapters

chapter ffa degree

national level

national ffa organization

american ffa degree