A-P FFA recognizes National FFA Week

This week will be an extra busy one for Aplington-Parkersburg’s FFA Chapter as they celebrate National FFA Week. 

On the national level, this week is celebrated from Feb. 19-25 by more than 850,000 FFA members across the nation. However, that is during finals week at A-P so the chapter elects to celebrate one week early.

The FFA chapter has dress up days each day of the week. Monday was Tie-Dye and Tuesday Country/Preppy Day. Wednesday is Chapter T-Shirt Day or Blue & Gold Day; Thursday is Dress Like a Teacher Day and Friday is “‘Merica” Day. They have an FFA meeting on Monday night, a coloring contest for the Pre-K to 5th graders that kicks off on Monday and awards winners on Friday. Thursday is the high school teacher appreciation breakfast. Typically, the chapter does Pet Therapy at Parker Place and Maple Manor on Wednesday of their celebration week, but this year sub-districts were scheduled a week later than usual and prevented them from being able to do this. 

On Wednesday, Feb. 1, two A-P FFA members and their advisor traveled to West Marshall High School in high hopes to earn a ballot spot on the 2023-2024 North Central District FFA Officer team. Cora Berends is a junior and currently serves as the A-P FFA Chapter Reporter. Tommy Janssen is a junior and serves as the A-P FFA chapter Treasurer. Cora ran for the district Reporter position and Tommy Vice President. While both of the students may represent more than 60 active FFA members at A-P High School, they seek to make a team that represents more than 4,000 FFA members in chapters of the NC FFA District. The district stretches from Ogden to North Union, and Riceville to Marshalltown. There were 23 candidates and only 10 positions available. Both members were balloted to a position to the NC District team and will make their case for election on March 4th in Boone at the NC District Convention. 

On the way down to district review night on Feb 1st, the three also had two Iowa Degree applications and record books from the chapter in their possession. Seniors Hannah Buttjer and Henry Reints both journaled about their work experiences, leadership and community service activities, coursework, and documented financial entries from paid placements in the local area in order to become eligible for the prestigious Iowa FFA Degree. Minimum qualifications to be eligible for this award include receiving the Chapter FFA Degree, be an active FFA member for 24 months, have completed at least 360 hours of Agricultural Education courses, have earned or productively invested a minimum of $1,500 in a work-based experience, completed 25 unduplicated hours of community service, demonstrated parliamentary law, given a six minute speech on an Ag topic, served as an officer or committee member, and have a satisfactory scholastic record. It is quite the task to be asked of FFA members who seek this degree. Both Hannah and Henry had well exceeded the state requirements for this degree, the highest honor our state FFA can bestow upon its members. Less than 5% of all Iowa FFA members receive this award.  

The success from these four A-P FFA members will carry momentum into the week of Feb. 13-17. On Wednesday, 16 A-P students will be competing in eight competitions at the sub-district level. These competitions include Conduct of Meetings, Chapter Program, Public Speaking, Extemporaneous Speaking, Creed Speaking, Ag Broadcasting, Ag Sales, and Job Interview. Members will compete against 12 other nearby FFA chapters at subdistricts to earn a top two spot that advances to the district competitions where they compete against 44 other schools before state contests.