Racine Southern Celebrates National FFA Week

Racine Southern Celebrates National FFA Week

Article written and submitted by 2022-2023 Racine Southern FFA Reporter Braydon Essick

(*Pictured above was the schedule for the entire FFA week.)*

Every year FFA members all over the nation celebrate FFA week During the last full week of February. The Racine Southern FFA Chapter also has their own FFA week to celebrate. The purpose of this week is to inform people about what FFA is, and communicate the importance of youth in agriculture. On Tuesday 21, 2023 Racine Southern’s FFA Week began and lasted until Friday 24, 2023. During the school week students from Southern could wear a hat each day for a dollar and participate in the dress up days which were different every day. Several activities happened each day of the week.

(*Pictured above is Lizzie Herra; in the gray hoodie, passing the balloons to her teammate.)*

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The week started off with a Country-Hawian Day on Tuesday. Later in the afternoon the FFA Chapter hosted an Ag Olympics for grades 7-12. The Olympics Consisted of several games that include: nail drive contest, corn shucking contest, and keep the balloon up. Lizzie Hererra participated in this event and said, “the most challenging factor about the balloon toss was being pushed by her teammates as they were trying to hit the balloon”. Lizzie also said she overcame this challenge by sucking it up and continuing to try her best to win.

(*Pictured above are FFA members participating in the activity that Ohio FFA Vice President, Hannah Saum planned for the ag courses)*

On Wednesday, grades 7-12 were encouraged to participate in the bring anything but a backpack dress day. At 3:30 PM there was supposed to be a Dog Shelter community service activity, unfortunately we had to be rescheduled to a later time. Ohio FFA State Officer, Hannah Saum (from Amanda-Clearcreek) came down to do a fun activity with each Ag class. FFA member Michelle Adkins participated in one of the activities and said, “I learned that everyone had to be on the same page and be doing the same thing to make it work”. The game consisted of a group of people trying to flip a towel over while they were all standing on it, which required a lot of teamwork.

(*Pictured above are the FFA Members who taught Southern’s 3rd graders, Ag in the Classroom.)*

During Thursday it was National Blue and Gold day for the dress up day. In the morning staff was greeted with doughnuts for staff appreciation day during the week. The FFA Chapter also had an event for Southern’s 3rd graders called Ag in the Classroom day, which involves FFA members teaching fun interactive agriculture related activities for the kids while also being able to communicate an important lesson to be learned. One of the FFA members to participate in the Ag in the classroom event was Emma Owens she said her favorite part about the event was seeing the kids happy. Emma stated, “I would encourage other members to join because the kids really seemed to enjoy doing it”. Some of the lessons included; making ice cream while learning about the dairy industry, learning the different soil layers, an apple as the earth-showing how much of the earth is usable for growing crops and how to conserve that land, and how to build a barn by working together in teams using different materials given to them.

Friday marked the last day of FFA week which was Western/Cowboy Day for the dress up day. At the beginning of the week mason jars were sent to each grade level. Towards the end of the day on Friday the pop tabs get collected and the winner gets a doughnut party completely paid for. FFA member, Theron Black helped with the mason jar delivery and collection. He thought the pop tab collection went really well and figured out the winner; the second grade won the competition and will earn a donut party! Overall, FFA week for the chapter went extremely well and the FFA members, and student body in general really enjoyed it. Our chapter is already planning for 2023 National FFA Week.