A.J. Braband
Elgin FFA Reporter
Elgin FFA Chapter members and students in Ag education classes from Elgin High school hosted a farm safety program on Friday, September 19th. Kindergarten thru sixth grade students from St. Boniface and Elgin Public Elementary schools attended the event. Various stations covering farm safety were explored by the youngsters.

The topics being presented by the high school students were tractor safety, chemical safety, grain bin/auger/ gravity wagon safety, lawn mower/weed eater safety, fire safety, ATV safety, and animal safety. The farm safety event was planned by the Elgin FFA Chapter to raise farm safety awareness with the youngsters during National Farm Safety Week.

According to Mr. Simpson Elgin High Agricultural Educator, “We need to hold events like this to educate our community’s youth on various dangers on the farm. With harvest just around the corner it is important to remind these young people of dangers that could be present.”

All together there were 151 youth from the two schools that attended the event, with nearly 20 high school students helping present the program.

In other news, the Elgin FFA Chapter is off to a busy fall season. Chapter members are gearing up for several Livestock and Range Judging events. On Wednesday, September 17th, 16 members of the Elgin FFA Chapter traveled to Atkinson to participate in the District 10 Range Judging event. Then on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon on September 20th, 18 FFA members attended a range judging practice session held at the Bob and Janice Pelster Ranch west of Elgin. Mr. Simpson had set up a mock contest to give the students an idea of what their Area contest will be like.

 

Upcoming events for the Chapter include the Area 5 Range Judging in Madison County on September 24th. State Range Judging in Garfield County on October 1st.

 

The Annual FFA Labor Auction held after the Elgin High – Elgin Pope John football game on October 3rd. Pre District Livestock Evaluation in Valentine on October 8th. The Elgin FFA Chapter will host the District 10 Livestock Evaluation on October 15th in Neligh.

Seven Members of the Elgin FFA Chapter will be attending the National FFA Convention held in Indianapolis IN on October 21st-24th. The National FFA Organization consist of over 500,000 members nationwide and over 50,000 of these members will be in attendance at the 2008 National Convention.

 

The seven representatives from the Elgin FFA Chapter are Carlie Redding, Tonya Wiegand, Amber Hoffart, Ashley Dittrich, A.J. Braband, Dean Braband, and Shane Vanis. These members will attend various sessions during the convention, explore careers in agriculture, tour agricultural industries in our nations Midwest and hear great motivational speakers during their short time at convention.