MVAO FFA Members Qualify for State
Written by MVAO FFA Reporter Renee Oberreuter with quotes added by Danbury Review Editor Lynn Buth
On March 2nd, thirteen MVAO FFA members went to Orange City to compete in FFA Districts.
"This year I did not have many challenges having students work on their events because they were very self-motivated with their contests," commented Jon Wimmer, FFA sponsor. "They did all of the work on their own with very few reminders needed from me.
Sara Rosener and Sophia Schumacher participated in Chapter Program which involves creating a slideshow about our chapter and giving a practiced speech. They received a gold rating and placed first; they advanced to State FFA.
"For the Chapter Program competition we had to prepare a presentation about the different activities are Chapter conducts every year and how those events benefit and better our Chapter, the community, and strengthen agriculture," said Sophia Schumacher, daughter of Amy and Nick Schumacher of Charter Oak. "Sara (Rosener) and I prepared the presentation by reviewing the previous year's events, writing a script about those activites, selecting pictures to place on the slide, and creating the presentation."
"Sophia (Schumacher) and I chose what we wanted included in the presentation by first looking at the requirements," added Sara Rosener, daughter of Angie and John Rosener of Mapleton. "The requirements gave us pillars with many categories under each pillar. We then matched the different activities we had with the different categories. We evened the activities out through the categories. Lastly, we memorized it all and touched up the spots that needed it."
Autum Hansen presented the Reporter's Scrapbook made by her and Renee Oberreuter which is a scrapbook containing everything the chapter has done in the past year. They received a gold rating and got second place; they advanced to State FFA.
"We spent a lot of time on the scrapbook," exclaimed Renee Oberreuter, daughter of Angie and James Oberreuter of Danbury. "This year we were going to try something new with how it was made, so it took some trial and error at the beginning, but we started mid-December. For the most part we looked at old scrapbooks for ideas and how to set things up. Mr. Wimmer also helped us with the rules and advice from past years."
"At our contest for scrapbook, all we have to do is hand our book to someone in charge and they take it to the place it will be judged. All that we are in charge of is finishing the book, making sure it meets all of the requirements, getting it to the contest, and making sure it ends up in the right hands," said Autum Hansen, daughter of Addie Adler of Anthon, concerning the judging process for their project. "We are judged off of a score sheet that we have never seen, so we pretty much have to guess how the judges would like or dislike something. Organization is one of the categories we are judged in and how clean and easy to read our scrapbook is."
Aiden Bottjen presented his Chapter Website which involves making a website about our chapter. He received a gold rating and advanced to State FFA.
"After looking on the Iowa FFA website and all of the contests that we have available to do, I was scrolling through and noticed that it (website creation) was something to do for districts and I thought it would be a lot of fun to do," said Aiden Bottjen of Anthon, son of Rebecca Beyer and Chad Bottjen. Since last year was the first year I did it, I had only a general idea on what to do, and if I'm not mistaken I placed bronze. This year I went through the notes that the judges left for the contest (last year) and worked on the things that said could be worked on, and I then changed the theme and formatting for the website to make it more clean and easy to read through. The website is available for people to look at, since I do not have a domain for the website that link will be https://sites.google.com/view/mvaoffa."
Sam Schrunk, Alex Wonder, Sophia Schumuacher, Aiden Bottjen, and Caralyn Henschen competed in Floriculture and Nursery & Landscaping which involves taking written tests and identifying plants and tools. As a team they received a silver rating in N&L and individually Schumacher placed 5th and Henschen placed 10th. In Floriculture Schumacher placed 7th.
Charlie Forbes and Jayden Meyer competed in Ag Mechanics which involves taking a written test, identifying engine parts, and welding. Forbes received a gold rating and Meyer received a silver rating.
Kylee Allen competed in Creed Speaking which involves reciting the entire FFA Creed from memory. She received a silver rating.
Sam Schrunk took the Greenhand Quiz which involves answering trivia questions about FFA. She received a silver rating.
Trista Ohlmeier, Chelsey Paulsen, Kane Boyle, and Owen Boyle competed in Meat Judging which involves identifying and judging cuts of meat. They received a bronze rating.
Alex Wonder and Autum Hansen also served as Delegates which involves listening to the speeches of District Officer Candidates and voting on them.
Overall a very successful Saturday! Good job to all participating and good luck at State FFA!