“FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of FFA members through Premier Leadership, Personal Growth and Career Success.” That’s the FFA Mission. And with roughly 735,000 members in seventh through 12th grade, the FFA is one of the biggest, most consequential youth leadership organizations in the United States. Recently, the Langford Area FFA chapter joined the more than 8,800 other local chapters across all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in celebrating National FFA Week with fun activities.
Founded in 1928 as the Future Farmers of America to teach farming to boys in agricultural communities, FFA expanded to include girls in 1969, and in 1988 changed its name to simply FFA “to reflect the growing diversity and new opportunities in the industry of agriculture,” according to the FFA website.
Today, FFA is involved in preparing youth for their future careers in a variety of fields, recognizing that no matter what one does for a living, it is almost certainly farming related, or reliant, if not actually farming itself. “The letters ‘FFA’ stand for Future Farmers of America. These letters are a part of our history and our heritage that will never change. But FFA is not just for students who want to be production farmers,” says the organization.
FFA also welcomes members who “aspire to careers as teachers, doctors, scientists, business owners and more,” reads a statement on the FFA website, concluding, “we are still the Future Farmers of America. But, we are the Future Biologists, Future Chemists,FutureVeterinarians, Future Engineers and Future Entrepreneurs of America, too.”
For Langford Area’s FFA chapter, this has been an exciting past several weeks. This is the first year the program has been active in some time. According to LA FFAAdvisor, AnnaMarie Sachs, the chapter has not been active in several decades. Though the program was sedentary for years, it did not mean that there were not dozens of enthusiastic students willing to participate this year. Sachs says over 20 students have signed on as FFA members.
The past few weeks have been filled with fun events at school and the first competition they have attended for decades. The chapter had planned to celebrate National FFA Week with many fun events a few weeks back, but the South Dakota weather got in the way. Still the group had some fundraisers along the way and ag-themed dress-up days. (One day was pajama day because “all the cows got out at 4 a.m.”) Last Thursday, the student body had some good farmthemed fun thanks to the FFA planning several games and competitions. Most of the classes from seventh grade to senior performed a dance number, with selections like “Fishin’ in the Dark,” and “Cotton-Eye Joe.” There was stick horse barrel racing and hay tossing. Students even got to try their hand at milking ‘a cow’ (a bucket rigged up with udders.)
Everything culminated on Friday when the chapter attended their first competition in about fifty years. They traveled to Redfield for a Career Development Event where students competed in different areas including milk quality, vet science, agricultural mechanics, meats evaluation, and floriculture. See the back page for results from the event.
Though they are just getting started, the new advisor says there is much more on the horizon for the reinvigorated FFA chapter. “Students seem to be really excited about the possibilities that they have within the program whether they are just doing ag classes or participating in FFA,” said Sachs. “We are looking forward to many different opportunities in the next year and continue to come up with them ranging from including a horticulture class that will focus on different design elements such as making floral arrangements and wreaths to the possibility of starting a greenhouse. We also look forward to working with local businesses and organizations to give students the most hands-on industry related experience possible.”
Sachs adds that the FFA program would not be possible without support from the community, the Langford area ag advisory board, and school support. Advisory committee members include Mike Frey, Kelly Jensen, Charley Larson, Patty Ogren, Brandon Alberts, Danny Jensen, Dan Ogren, Brandon Hagan, and Connard Ewalt.
See the back page for much more FFA content.
