Manhattan High’s FFA Club started off their first meeting with a barbecue in room F102. The two presidents of the club Neeley Bowden and Kelsey Neufeld started off the meeting by having adult sponsors Mr. Muller and Ms. Mullinex explain to all the students what the club is about.

“Youth organization for people interested in Agriculture.”

was how Mr. Muller described the club.

You will have the opportunity to do many things in FFA from livestock judging to pet science. You will be able to do these things in various competitions against other schools.

“It’s kind of a lot of groups coming from all over”

sophomore Kahla Ward said as she described the competitions and who attends them.

One competition offered is CDE -Career Development Event- these can have various types of competition and you will surely be able to find an event that peaks your interest. When students enter CDE’s Bowden and Neufeld have come up with a way to give the students and incentive to learn more about their topic and to do well. For every event you go to and place in the top 10% of the candidates you will receive a $10 gift card as well as the knowledge of everything learned along the way.

To help them decide who gets the opportunity to represent our school and compete at the National Convention in October of 2018 in Indianapolis, Indiana the presidents came up with a new point system. Since only 6 of the students from our school are able to attend the convention it is going to be very difficult to choose them. The point system works like this, for every competition entered there are a certain amount of points. Points can also come from placing in a competition, going to group fundraisers and attending different events.

Fundraisers are a big part of FFA since it takes money to enter into the competitions. The various fundraisers will be put towards CDE’s and the National Convention. The more fundraising the students do the less money they have to pay on their own. They will do many different fundraisers but the next one on the calendar will be going and working a booth at the state fair in Hutchinson on September 8th.  When they are done working the booth for a short shift of only two hours they will have the rest of the day to enjoy various activities at the fair.

The upcoming CDE’s are on September 27th in Blue Valley, there will be three different events the students can participate in. The first is over range management where they will evaluate a pasture for vegetative and landscape features. The second is Entomology where they will be identifying insects and their role in agriculture. Finally the students will have the opportunity to do land and homesite, they will do various studies on the soil and assess them.With a ways to go before their first CDE FFA is having a Bonfire on the 16th of September with fun games, roasting hot dogs and s’mores to work on their team bonding and to get to know everyone in the club better.

FFA is going to be a very hands on club with many learning opportunities. Team oriented activities will be available as well as a greater knowledge in agriculture. Everyone will have a chance to be involved. If you have any interest in Agriculture and are looking for a club to join FFA would be a good option to check out.