Last year the farm show was canceled due to the pandemic, but this year it came back in full force, besides some delays due to snow. FFA has a big presence at the farm show, and like most years, our chapter did quite a bit this year. To start, the Conduct of Chapter Meetings team received recognition for receiving a gold medal at nationals. If you would like to know more about that, you can read my November article. Kicking off a lot of FFA members' journeys this year, we had some new members receiving an FFA jacket through the Jacket Scholarship Program.
The Jacket Scholarship program is run by the PA FFA alumni and provides first-year FFA members with an FFA jacket. Each member who wishes to receive a jacket must go through an application process, and this year we had nine members receive a jacket. These members are: Casey Beachel, Bennet Brinser, Matthew Finkenbinder, Alyssa Goodling, Morgan Hale, Ethan Rumfelt, Hannah Shiffer, Makayla Shoop, and Noah Weller. These members have had their potential recognized in their application and will leave a lasting impact on our chapter.
Next up, we have our Keystone degree recipients. The Keystone, or state degree, is the second-highest degree an FFA member can receive, second only to the American degree. These members have put many hours into their SAE projects and into FFA as a whole. In order to achieve the Keystone FFA Degree, members had to earn or productively invest a minimum of $300 and work 1,000 hours, demonstrate knowledge of parliamentary procedure, participate in a minimum of 15 FFA activities, and complete a minimum of 25 hours of community service. We have five members that received a Keystone degree this year; they are Jay Bratton, Nevin Brofee, Andrea Clark, Megan Peters, and Spencer Watts. These members have done a lot for our chapter and have a bright future ahead of them!
One of our Keystone Degree Recipients managed to become one of the four Pennsylvania stars. Spencer Watts represented the South Central Region in the Agriscience star category and won! Spencer has participated in the Agriscience Fair for the last three years, completing projects in the categories of Food Science and Animal Science. Spencer will continue his research and compete against students from 13 other states for the Eastern Star at the Eastern States Exposition in September.
We also had some Greenwood parents receive an Honorary Keystone Degree. This can be achieved through having three or more students receive a Keystone Degree in their high school career. Brian and Joanna Peters receive this award this year for their three children, Emma, Rachel, and Megan.
Agriscience Fair
The Agriscience Fair was planned to be held on 1/7, but due to snow, it was postponed until 1/10. Due to this postponement, the interview portion of the Agriscience Fair was canceled. This competition is like a normal science fair, but with more of a focus on agriculture. This year, Greenwood entered 10 projects into different categories.
In the Animal Systems category, we had three entries. In the grades 9 & 10 team competition, we had Hannah Shiffer and Alyssa Goodling with their project “The Effect of Egg Turning on Incubation Success”, which placed first in their category! Next, in the grades 9 & 10 individual category, we had Grace Miller with her project, “The Effect of Proper Nutrition on Swine”, which placed seventh in her category. Finally, in the grades 11 & 12 individual category, we had Spencer Watts and his project, “Does Music Effect Milk Production”, which placed fifth in his category.
Next, in the Power, Structural, and Tech Systems category, we had three entries. These were all in the same category of teams in grades 9 & 10. Dakota Weiand and Dominic Reisenger’s project, “The Effect of Grease Quality on Friction”, placed first! Next, Riley Hoffman and Sam Watts’s project on “The Effect of Sugar Type on Ethanol”, placed second. And last but not least, Noah Bryner and Ethan Rumfelt’s project, “Game Improving Golf Balls”, placed third. This means Greenwood took the entire podium in this category with first, second, and third-place teams.
The third category we had a representative in was Environmental Services/Natural Resources. Within this, Matt Finkenbinder represented us in the 9 & 10 grade individuals with his project, “The Effect of Corner Crop on Soil Erosion”, which placed third.
The final category we had participants in was Plant Systems. In the grades 9 & 10 individuals, Benett Brinser placed sixth with his project, “The Effect of Medium Type of Plant”. We also had two projects in the grades 9 & 10 teams. The first was Olivia Clegg and Cassian Neeb with their project “The Effect of pH Levels on Seedling Growth”, which placed first! Finally, we had the team of Makayla Shoop and Morgan Hale, whose project, “The Effect of Butyric Acid on Root Growth”, placed second.
Greenwood had a strong presence at the farm show this year, which will undoubtedly set our tone for the rest of the year. We had nine jacket recipients, six keystone degree recipients, a star in Agriscience, and two honorary keystone degree recipients. In the Agriscience Fair, we got three first-place, two second-place, and two third-place finishes. Our gold-medal-winning team from last year received recognition and we even had members helping out at the milkshake stand! Overall this was a wonderful beginning to our year and here's to hoping the rest of the year follows suit.
Credit to Priceless Pixels Photography for some of the pictures used in this article.