Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Belle Plaine FFA celebrates FFA Week
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
BELLE PLAINE — The Belle Plaine FFA Chapter has been busy over the past year.
Our chapter has done many activities between our annual family-member banquet back in May 2024 to National FFA Week in 2025.
The 2024-2025 officer team was announced at this time: Kyla Shaull, president; Layne McLeod, vice president; Addison Stamp, secretary; Eva Brannaman, treasurer; Denisyn Adams, reporter; Lillian Wickwire, sentinel; and Parker Weeda, Jackson Weeda and Maggie Bostian, officers at large.
This year is John Daniels’ fourth year in Belle Plaine as the Agriculture Education Instructor and FFA Advisor and his 17th year teaching overall.
Belle Plaine FFA kicked off its year by hosting its annual Pedal Tractor Pull July 4. Members set up on the tennis courts in Franklin Park and hosted more than 30 children ages 3-7 to help celebrate July 4.
Winners in each age division received a ribbon and a toy tractor as a prize.
Career success and career exploration was a chapter objective during September.
Four members competed in the Iowa FFA State Milk Quality and Products contest. Denisyn Adams, Kennedy Coover, Stella Rupp and Reghan De Rycke received a silver in the contest out of more than 30 participating teams from across Iowa.
The contest asked members to demonstrate their knowledge and skills through a general knowledge test and a team test and to evaluate dairy products ranging from different types of cheese to different dairy and non-dairy product evaluations.
Also in September, the Belle Plaine FFA Chapter competed in two soil-judging contests. Parker Weeda, Jackson Weeda, Lane Vokoun and Maddox Purk competed at the Quad-County Soil Contest hosted by the NRCS.
The same team competed a week later at the Southeast District FFA Soil Evaluation Career Development Event. At the District Contest, the soils team received a silver rating.
Personal growth and leadership development was a chapter focus in October.
Members attend Greenhand Fire Up with 26 members and sent six members to the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Service was a theme for the month of November. Early in the month, members volunteered their time to clean a two-mile stretch of Highway 21 as part of the Adopt-a-Highway Program.
Members also helped decorate the Belle Plaine Community Christmas tree and held their annual fruit, meat, cheese, popcorn and poinsettia sale. Members were responsible for the growth, management, marketing and sales of poinsettias from the chapter greenhouse.
Chapter officers dressed as Santa, his elves and reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and the Grinch and passed out candy canes to help students at Longfellow Elementary get in the Christmas spirit.
On Jan. 22, chapter officers visited the Capitol Building in Des Moines to advocate for agricultural education and FFA in our public schools, part of the annual FFA Legislative Symposium.
On Thursday Feb. 13, chapter members traveled to North Mahaska High School to compete at the subdistrict FFA Leadership Development Event Contests.
Belle Plaine students competed in the following contests:
Conduct of Meetings: Carly McLeod, Jadie Dahlquist, Taylor Johnson, Annika Hultquist, Allison Hoover, Reghan De Rycke and Kyla Elliott.
Job Interview: Kyla Shaull.
Ag Broadcasting: Denisyn Adams.
FFA Creed Speaking: Addison Stamp.
Welding: Gabe Kaplan and Parker Weeda.
Public Speaking: Maggie Bostian.
As National FFA Week gets underway Feb. 17-21, the Belle Plaine FFA Chapter has a number of activities planned to help celebrate the week.
Chapter members will read to elementary students during their reading intervention times, dress up at the high school, display facts about FFA and agriculture and hold a faculty breakfast at the high school.
Coming events include a chapter ski trip, District FFA Convention, State FFA Convention, Third Grade Ag Safety Day, the annual plant sale and our Chapter FFA Banquet.
As always, we extend our sincerest gratitude to the Belle Plaine Community for their continuous support to the Belle Plaine Agriculture Education Program, and FFA Chapter.
To stay up to date with the latest happenings within the Belle Plaine FFA Chapter, follow the chapter on Facebook.
