News : V-S FFA Officers Teach Newcomers What FFA is About

Austin Noe, Ben Buhr, Will McKenna, Tayton Schminke, Ben McGowan, Wesley McKenna, Ryan Shipley, Kaelynn Pettyjohn, Paige Bearbower, Yasmine Rogers, Christine Kurt, and Paul Herger share a laugh learning about possible contests they can participate in.

Starting the night off with an ice breaker, “Guess the Officer”.

Members stand in line waiting to pin an item of official dress on the person.

By: Co-Reporter, Alana Fleming

On Thursday, September 1st, the Vinton-Shellsburg FFA chapter held their local Greenhand Fire Up. They invited new faces to FFA to the greenhand night to gain knowledge about what FFA really is, what it means to be in FFA and some things they'll get to experience during their membership. 14 students attended the leadership workshop to further their abilities.

Throughout the night the officers split up into groups and taught four lessons. These lessons included; Official Dress, Leadership, Mini Contests, and Bingo including FFA fun facts. In the 1st group, Grace Schminke and Kail Evans, taught Greenhands about what official dress is and when and how to wear it. They learned about the rules for wearing official dress and the meaning behind it.

The second group, Annabelle Newton and Austin Noe, informed students about how to be great leaders and lead by example. After the greenhands wrote out some of their personal values, they made a leadership kit having supplies to help them whenever they will need them.

Going into the third session they were informed about some of the opportunities FFA will bring, for example, Leadership and Career Development Events. Josh Wiley and Alana Fleming held 3 mini contests including Food Science, Soil Judging, and Milk and Dairy Products. The students were able to try out each of those mini contests and learn about others to see what they would be interested in competing in the future.

The last session was a trivia bingo held by Andrew Pingenot and Paul Herger. Paul and Andrew informed the Greenhands about the different parts of the FFA emblem and then had bingo trivia. The greenhands would answer questions about FFA to get their spots on the bingo cards. When asked to summarize his experience, Kaden Kerkman said "I had a lot of fun experimenting with new things, doing fun activities, and having tons of fun learning new things. I definitely recommend it".