The new year kicked off a busy couple months for the Bowling Green FFA Chapter.
The chapter welcomed student teacher, Kyla McCoy. McCoy is a senior agriscience student at Ohio State University and she will spend most of the semester at BGHS teaching the students, learning about the FFA chapter and completing her licensure requirements to become an Ag teacher after she graduates in May. McCoy is a graduate of Eastwood High School.
January was busy with completing award and degree applications for FFA. Members worked hard on their State and American Degree Applications, Proficiency Award Applications and Officer Books.
After three rounds of evaluations, results are in and the member’s hard work has paid off. Zack Bechstein, Cole Brokaw, Henry Strow, and Annie Urban earned their State FFA Degree which will be awarded to them at the State FFA Convention in May.
Also recognized on stage in May will be Drew Thomas who is in the Top 4 in the state for his Ag Processing Proficiency area. His final placing will be announced at the convention. Finally, Aiden Meyer, Averie Crawford and Annie Urban will be recognized as Gold Medal Officers as well.
Aidan Thomas and Addie Naus participated in the Public Speaking CDE. Aidan memorized, presented and answered questions about the FFA Creed. Aidan placed 5th. Addie wrote and memorized a 6-8 minute speech on an agricultural topic. She placed 3rd.
The officers also held their January monthly meeting. This meeting consisted of some fun icebreaker games, a business meeting, a nacho bar, and other fun games like spike ball and corn hole for recreation.
The month of February started with some new faces visiting the Ag Department. Eighth grade recruitment allowed us to introduce the incoming freshman to Agricultural Education and FFA. Members of the chapter volunteered their time to inform and present about different aspects of the chapter. Paired with this was 8th grade parent night which allowed for the parents of the 8th graders to get more information about the Bowling Green FFA during an open house held at the high school.
Bowling Green FFA kicked off 2024 with planning and fundraising for the chapter’s philanthropic event Bobcat-A-Thon. Thanks to support from the BG athletic department and athletic boosters, the chapter worked the concession stand, had a candy raffle, a 3-point shootout, and held a bake sale during all the boys basketball games on February 9th. The chapter raised $618.50 for Nationwide Children’s Hospital-Toledo through this event. Two additional fundraisers took place in February for Bobcat-A-Thon including a Rapid Fired Pizza Night along with the annual strawberry sale. All money raised through a variety of activities will go towards the final total that will be given to the hospitals and presented at Bobcat-A-Thon on Feb. 24.
The district Ag Sales CDE was held on Feb. 2 at Redline Equipment in Portage. The Ag Sales CDE includes an online exam and customer relations practicum. The team placed fourth overall in the district and participants included Aiden Meyer, Annie Urban, Angela Ducat, and Addie Naus. The Ag Power Diagnostics CDE was also held on Feb. 2 and it has members troubleshoot five different pieces of agricultural equipment. Wyatt Bechstein and Cole Brokaw participated and placed 6th in the district.
February ended with National FFA Week. The chapter had themed dress up days for members to participate in. The themes were Tractor Tuesday, students would wear their favorite tractor color (green for John Deer, Red for Case-IH). Way too Bright Wednesday where students wore neon for this year’s Bobcat-A-Thon theme, Shine Bright for the Fight. Thank your favorite Farmer Thursday where they dressed up like their favorite farmer and FFA Friday where students wore shirts donated by AgCredit.
During FFA week there were also activities like find the FFA emblem where students had to find the emblem hidden around the school. There were also daily trivia questions for FFA members to get a chance to enter into a raffle. The sophomore class was visited by Ohio State FFA officers, Ava Evers and Katelyn Kinsella. These officers taught the sophomores how to make dog toys out of old t-shirts. They made 172 dog toys that will be donated to a local dog shelter. It was a great week spent celebrating FFA.
The Bowling Green Agricultural Education Department is a satellite program of Penta Career Center.
