Washington FFA celebrates 75 years

The Washington FFA chapter has been very busy all year long. With banquets, field day activities, and in-school activities, the FFA rarely takes breaks. Their goal is to educate the public on agriculture and the great things that come with agriculture.

During the summer, the Washington FFA went to the fair grounds for a day to help with the Continuum Ag field day. The members helped the Washington County Cattlemen with making and wrapping burgers to feed for lunch at the event. We also served food to the public, who were there walking the grounds.

This year, Washington FFA celebrated their 75th anniversary. We had a big banquet with a bunch of alumni invited, we served food and had an awards ceremony. We also had a desert live auction. We also inducted our new officers into office.

The chapter had a huge plant sale. Mr. Clough’s plant science class worked hard in the greenhouse to provide plants to the public. They grew anything from tomatoes to petunias. The greenhouse was open for 3 weeks and sold majority of their product. They started in February planting seeds and organizing the pots and planters. Each student had their own table and would grow plants that they picked out. This was a great learning experience while also raising money for future years in the greenhouse.

This past year, the Washington FFA sent four members and the Advisor to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The members would go to different sessions in the Lucas Oil Stadium. There was also a huge gift shop in the convention center where different businesses would set up their shops to sell clothing, jewelry, and different souvenirs. The members went on many tours, like Fair Oaks Dairy in Fair Oaks, Indiana. They milk thousands of cows every day on a carousel. The students road on tour buses around the farms. The next tour they went on was to a fishery in Indianapolis, where they hatch fish and raise them to sell through multiple online platforms. Our last tour was at Ball State University. We toured their campus all morning.

The Washington FFA Chapter will be celebrating FFA week from Feb. 19-24 On Sunday, we will be decorating the hallways in the High School with Royal Blue and Corn Gold. On Monday, we will be going to Career Development Events to compete in a variety of events. Members compete in anything from Conduct of meetings to Welding. On Tuesday, we will be serving teachers at the High School breakfast. We also will be serving breakfast to all of the schools in Washington. The members will be getting to the high school bright and early to make food for the teachers. On Wednesday, the members will be going to the Washington Middle School to do Ag Olympics, a series of different farm activities that the typical farmer does, brought to a school. The kids will carry buckets of corn with coveralls on, tip tractor tires, and milk a cow with bottles. On Thursday, we will be doing ag Olympics at the High School. On Friday, we will be doing tractor day, in which we will meet at the fairground early in the morning and drive around town.