The Conestoga FFA chapter has had a cooked up busy year so far. Though the chapter participates in numerous activities, most of them can be broken down into three important groups. Student development, which includes activities that develop the chapter members and aid them in becoming better students and leaders, chapter development, these activities aim at developing the chapter as a whole, and finally community development, which helps the community and further build relationships between community members and the chapter.

In student development Conestoga FFA has striven for student success. The first activity in this group was a C.O.L.T. Conference which takes place in June immediately following the students release from school. C.O.L.T. stands for chapter officer leadership training. The chapter officer team attended this conference, and they spent 3 days at the FFA leadership center in Aurora, Nebraska. The second activity is state fair where many of our members worked hard to prepare entries for the state fair and competed against students from all over state. 

IMPACT was our next activity in student development. IMPACT was a leadership conference that the members attend, and they spent an entire day at Norris high school with the FFA State Officers. They learned and practiced leadership skills while there.  Students have also competed in Land Judging. At district land judging, Will Salisbury, Kalby Wehrbein, Derek Phelps, and Cory Schlichtemeier qualified for State Land Judging where they finish 12th overall. Our final activity for this group was the district leadership skills events, which gave students the chance to compete against students from other schools in our district and improve leadership and career skills. This year Denae Martin, Kalby Wehrbein, and Cory Schlichtemeier all qualified for state in their leadership skills events in April.

In chapter development, the chapter has strove to build a positive image. Our first activities of the year were aimed at recruitment for our chapter.  The chapter put on a junior high dance, petting zoo, and test plot day for junior high, high school, and elementary students.  The events were designed to encourage interest in FFA and also involve our entire chapter to work together to put on the events.  The chapter also had their annual can drive that spanned around 3 weeks and combined with the Conestoga Elementary School’s can drive to raise over 3,500 different food items for local food banks.  Also, during the holiday season was a candy cane selling competition between our chapter and our school’s FBLA chapter. Students sold candy canes to others in the high school and all proceeds were donated to the March of Dimes. 

Lastly, in community development the FFA has tried to involve the FFA members with the community. The activities in this group included a highway trash pick-up, test plot field day, school clean-up, and pancake feed in the summer for the Murray Fire Department. This year the chapter also entered a float in the Murray Fourth of July parade and the Cass County Fair parade.

Overall the chapter has had a very busy but extremely successful year. We have participated in numerous activities in all three areas of development, student, chapter and community.  Yet, we look forward to a few more activities to cook off the rest of the year.