Tuesday, January 06, 2009

By Madison Pernicek

The Ravenna FFA Chapter has started off another great year. The new team of officers was introduced at the annual FFA banquet in May. The 2007-2008 officers are Candace Long, President; Samone Behrendt, Vice President; Brandy Behrendt, Secretary; Josh Albright, Treasurer; Madison Pernicek, News Reporter; Luke Zinnel, Sentinel, and Gavin Jager, Parliamentarian. The new leaders attended COLT Conference in Aurora over the summer where they learned about their specific responsibilities and how to become better leaders.

The calf pasture program at Ravenna was very successful again this year. The 21 calves were sold in October, and were owned by the members, sponsors, and contributors.  The members of the chapter always learn something and have fun when working calves and getting the pasture ready. The pasture program has been going since 1976. 

Every member of the Ravenna FFA looks forward to the trip that the chapter takes every summer to the Nebraska National Forest in Halsey for a three-day work/fun activity.  This year 18 members cleared an area for a parking space and built a new set of stairs to a new area allowing easier accessibility to the camping grounds. The members also had fun tubing down the river, swimming, and fishing at the National Forest.

Four members attended NAYI, Nebraska Agriculture Youth Institute, in Lincoln where they learned about college life, toured the city of Lincoln, and were informed on different agriculture issues. The five members that attended this year were Candace Long, Brandy Behrendt, Chantelle Reicks, Lisa Grabowski, and Olga Miller.   

The summer was a very busy time for the chapter. During the month of July the Sherman County Fair contained 13 members while another seven members participated in the Buffalo County Fair during August. The 4-Her’s showed beef, goats, sheep, swine, and many other projects. Craig Morgan came to the Buffalo County Fair also, and the chapter members got to help set up the stage and were rewarded by getting to see the concert. The set-up crew helped with the rodeo too by putting up and taking down the panels that surrounded the arena.

This year, of the 38 members, 10 decorated pumpkins, and numerous others sold crafts at the Labor Auction. The Labor Auction is an event that takes place in Ravenna every year and people from the surrounding areas come to purchase some good workers for an eight-hour work day. This year was again another success.

The District Livestock Judging contest was held on Nov. 7. Michal Musil, Josh Deines, Jordan Barent, and Seth Musil finished fifth as a team. The top individual for Ravenna was Michal Musil with a 6th place finish. Jessica Reicks, Abby Barent, Austin Andrews, Shelby Behrendt, and Micaela Boardman were the top five for Ravenna in the juniors division, and as a team finished 7th.  Both teams qualified for the state contest which will be held in Lincoln during the month of April.  

The National FFA Convention was attended by eight members and one supervisor.  The members had a lot of fun learning about different FFA Chapters and new ideas for the chapter to do in the future as well as meeting other members from across the country.  They attended many sessions and workshops during their time at the National Convention. These members got to take a class on blowing glass, visiting the Indianapolis 500 Raceway, and attending different sessions on leadership. The two American Degree recipients were Derek Wedemeyer and Kent Urwiller.  The chapter also received a three-star rating for their National Chapter Application. The results were because of another year of hard work by everyone in the chapter.

The Chapter has already started a tremendous year and will keep looking forward to District and State Leadership Skills Events and Career Development Events this spring.

The current members of the Ravenna FFA Chapter for the 2007-2008 year are Brandy Behrendt, Candace Long, Gavin Jager, Samone Behrendt, Josh Albright, Lisa Grabowski, Madison Pernicek, Luke Zinnell, Kody Urwiller, Joshua Deines, Jessica Reicks, Micaela Boardman, Olga Miller, Kendra Warta, David Ripp, Michal Musil, Mallory Irvine, Micheal Brown, Ethan Zoerb, Derek Musil, Chantelle Reicks, Seth Musil, Danny Russell, Skylar Teichmeier, Josiah Kirby, Shelby Behrendt, Austin Andrews, Jordan Barent, Torri Dethlefs, Catherine Ripp, Jason Busch, Matt Mittelstaedt, Abby Barent, Benjamin Schlich, Levi Clark, Brittany Gross, and Nicholas Hofaker.