76 years ago, the tradition of FFA week was first honored. Since then, the third week of February has been honored through many traditions that FFA chapters have designated. This year the Powell-Shoshone FFA chapter celebrated FFA week in many ways.
Monday night, the FFA officers and the FFA freshman class celebrated the Greenhand Banquet. This ceremony honors the achievements of the freshman class and they are provided with the Greenhand Degree.
“During FFA week I went to the Greenhand Banquet,” freshman Landon McDonald said. “I feel like it went very well, the food was great, and the banquet was overall very pleasant.”
Tuesday Night, the Mr. FFA contest was supposed to be held, however, had to be canceled due to the weather.
“I feel like many of our events had great attendance. Our attendance was up on our works auctions, which was great,” agriculture teacher Mr. Benjamin Curdy said. “We did have some weather-impacted events, we had to cancel them, so there was kind of a variation there, but the ones that we were able to go through pretty good attendance.”
The monthly chapter meeting was held on Wednesday night, and the group participated in the Chore Night activity. Moving haybales, a wheelbarrow race, and a bottle milking were all part of a timed relay that the members participated in.
“They [activities] were a lot of fun,” sophomore Pratt Wambeke said. “At Chore Night, it was fun to watch everyone fall in the feed sacks.”
Thursday night, the chapter hosted its annual Works Auction. In this event, members sell either 8 hours of labor or a project they made. The auction raises money for the FFA chapter.
“I attended the Works Auction, it went pretty good it was a huge improvement from past years so that was good,” senior Cami Gernhart said. “We had a great turnout of projects and buyers, over all it was a good time.”
On Friday morning, the officer team cooked breakfast burritos for the high school teachers. This was an act of community service that benefited the teachers.
“I think the Teachers’ Breakfast was a success,” Wambeke said. “We got to have a lot of fun at breakfast with the teachers.”
Regarding the dress-up days during FFA week, Tuesday was USA Day, Wednesday was Pajama Day, Thursday was Camouflage Day, and Friday was Blue and Gold Day, which was also Anything but a Backpack Day.
“I thought they [dress-up days] were super fun,” Wambeke said. “Especially anything but a backpack day.”
Although the dress-up days were fun, some felt as though there could have been more participation from the student body.
“Well, it’s one of the things we came away from that week that we need to do a better job sharing those dress updates with the whole school and not just within our own section,” Curdy said. “So we’ve made some notes that next year we’re going to do more with announcements, more preemptive advertising and larger posters and stuff like that, to get the word out better so we can get more involvement.”
Overall, FFA week was enjoyed by many, and lessons were learned on how to improve for the next year.