Apr 30, 2024
Story Submitted by Cortlynn Cook and Megan Young
On Monday morning, April 15, fifty-two FFA members met at the Central Decatur High School to load the bus at 5:45 a.m. to head to the Iowa FFA State Convention. It was held at Iowa State University in Ames to compete in contests, develop leadership skills, celebrate personal achievements, and connect with others. The members that came had to earn their spot by having excellent attendance and meeting the financial goals set by our chapter! This year’s chaperones were Mary Frisbie, Mark Saylor, and Tanner Bettin. Our FFA advisor Ms. Rosa Sondag and student teacher Ms. Kendra Boles also attended. We were pleased to have Rick Rhum drive our bus again this year.
To start our Monday morning, our Chapter Program team that consisted of Adeline Stone, Quinn Keren, and Jeffery Richards competed and received a bronze rating.
The Experience the Action team included Taylor Leahy, Soyier Smith, Lola Helton, Aubri Perkins, Kamryn Jones, and Renata Coria. They earned a gold rating and received 3rd place overall in the state!
Our delegates this year were Austin Jensen and Bailey Dittmer. They voted for our 2024-2025 State FFA officer team!
Gibson Graham competed in the FFA talent show by singing and did amazing.
Monday afternoon we went to the first general session and listened to the Keynote speaker share his life story. His name was Nick Tokman, but he calls himself “Sunshine.” The FFA BBQ and Fun Night followed afterward!
On Tuesday morning, April 16, we had Riley Benda and Macson Lindsey competing in the Greenhand quiz and they both received a silver rating.
Then later we had our first-ever poultry judging team consisting of Lucas Lindsey, Piper Teel, Morgan Havlik, and Blake Boyd. They received a bronze rating. At the third general session, Hadley Bell and Matthew Foltz were awarded the National Chapter award and received a Gold Rating for our chapter! During the last session, we had AJ Moore and Anden Hall compete in the Iowa FFA band. Lastly, we had 12 members get their Iowa FFA Degrees; including Kaycee Boyce, Wyatt Hamaker, Judd Eastin, Anden Hall, Wade Hill, Lane Leeper, Adeline Stone, Jeffery Richards, Nolan Pierson, Riley Yoder, Olivia Saylor, and Katie Pfaltzgraff. We ended the session by watching the new 2024-2025 Iowa FFA officer team get elected. A huge congratulations is given out to all of those who received awards, competed, and represented the Central Trail FFA Chapter.