The Newman Grove FFA Chapter has had an eventful and successful spring so far. The last weekend in February a group of 13 students attended Made for Excellence and Advanced Leadership Development training in Kearney.

The group had a good time and got to experience leadership in a variety of new ways. The themes for this year for MFE was “Survivor,” while ALD was “A Backstage Pass to the Leadership Conference.”

A week later on March 3, a group of 17 FFA members participated at District Career Development Contests held each year at Columbus Community College.

The Ag Mechanics were crowned District Champs, while three members, Ben Jacobsen, Luke Gasper and Matt King took the top three individual places. The fourth teammate, Shane Farrier, brought home 12th place to round out the competition.

The Agriscience team consisting of Kendra Nelson, Cristina King, Joan O’Brien, and Scott Rasmussen tied for 7th place in their competition. Individually Nelson & King received blue, while O’Brien & Rasmussen received red.

In the floriculture contest the gals took 6th as a team, and Olivia Wiese received blue, Katie O’Brien, Katie King and Alyshia Nelson all received red.

In the Livestock Management contest the team consisting of Tatem Fowlkes, Alisha Dunlap, Brooke Nelson, Chelsea Benson, and Sheldon Boschen received a red.

This year the FFA Chapter also received funds from two different sources. Battle Creek Farmers Cooperative of Newman Grove and Land’O’Lakes Foundation gave a sizeable donation to the Chapter for efforts in continuing the development of the FFA program through the use of technology in the classroom.

Town and Country Vet Clinic of Albion partnering with Pfizer also gave the chapter a sizeable donation as a way to show their appreciation and support of the FFA program through Agriculture Education.

With these donations, the Ag Department purchased two new laptops, which will aide in record keeping for member’s SAE programs, and also for use in the Ag Ed classroom.

The chapter would like to take this opportunity to say THANKS to all these supporters of our FFA Program!
Upcoming events for the remainder of the year include State Convention, April 1-3, Officer Interviews, April 20th, and the 80th Annual Chapter Banquet April 30th.