The Future Farmers of America program at Heritage High School had a very successful and event-packed year. The events start at the beginning of the year, with the students attending multiple competitions throughout the state. The first competition of the season was in October, held at Rome High School. The Environmental Natural Resources team placed 5th out of 16 other groups. This team consisted of seniors Sammy Jones & Sammi Williamson and freshmen Trenton Eppers & Hunter Kennedy. Jones placed in the top ten individually outside of the team for the topic.
The Floral Design team fared very well, with senior Ansley Wheat and freshman Emma Gribben both working hard to make the best possible arrangements. Gribben placed fourth out of thirty contestants, after making a beautiful, well done centerpiece arrangement. “It was really fun!” Gribben said with a smile. She also spoke about how many opportunities she had, because of the competition and training. “It’s opened a whole new world of opportunities of flowers, designing, all of that.”
The second competition of the season was also held at Rome High School in November, and consisted of many different subjects, including floriculture, wildlife, and game bird biology. The Senior Floriculture team placed 4th out of 33 teams, with an amazing performance. The team consisted of seniors Madison Hall, Kaylin Schubert, & Natalie Vaughn and junior Zaybree Simpson. The Senior Wildlife team had sophomore Brock Capehart, junior Dakota Barr, sophomore Will Edgeman, and senior Sammy Jones. This team placed 22nd out of 44 peer groups. The Junior Wildlife team achieved 17th place out of 35 teams. The students involved in this team were freshmen Hunter Kennedy, Carson Pierce, Mason Boyd, and Trenton Eppers. In the Individual Game Bird Biology section, Eppers placed 8th. Jones placed 4th individually in General Identification. Despite the impressive performance of all of the students, they did not qualify for State.
As well as notable competition scores, the agriculture program at Heritage is also very involved with the student body. One example of this is the flowers they distributed in February! Throughout the weeks leading up to Valentine’s day, the FFA program delivered beautifully arranged roses and carnations to students who paid the small fee. As well as the small Valentines sale, FFA also holds many different sales throughout the year, including the remarkable spring plant sale held at the greenhouse.
These are far from the only things FFA has done for Heritage, the week dedicated to them was also amazing and engaging! FFA week is something held every year, and it is a time for celebration all across the school! This year was very successful, with fun dress up days, but the star of the week was the pop-up petting zoo. Blessing Creek Farms in Lafayette lent the Agriculture program a few cows, a miniature donkey, baby goats, and a bunny. The animals were in the academic courtyard at lunch, on the 28th of February. Everyone was able to visit, no FFA membership needed. Mrs. Handy, the sponsor of our FFA and Agriculture program said her personal favorite event is the Spring Plant Sale: “It’s very stressful, but it’s a massive undertaking, and it’s very much student based.” Overall, the FFA program at Heritage is thriving this year, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
