FFA School Kickoff

Aloera Ostermann, Staff Writer

Everybody likes a barbecue right? Well Manhattan High’s FFA club started off their school year with a barbecue during their first club meeting.

The co-presidents of the club, seniors Neeley Bowden and Kelsey Neufeld, started off the meeting by having club sponsors Doug Muller and Elissa Mullinex explain to all the students what the club is about.

“Youth organization for people interested in agriculture,”  Muller said.

Many opportunities will be presented to do many things in FFA from livestock judging to pet science. All this will be available in various competitions against other many other schools.

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

The upcoming CDEs are on Sept. 27 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, where they will stay and assess the soil.

To help them decide who gets the opportunity to represent Manhattan High and compete at the National Convention in October of 2018 in Indianapolis the presidents came up with a new point system. Only six of the students from our school are able to attend the convention. The point system is simple 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 CDEs and the National Convention. The more fundraising the students do, the less money they have to pay on their own.

With a ways to go before their first CDE FFA is having a bonfire on Sept. 16  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.