“I can. We will.”

This is the National FFA theme for 2017-18. FFA week celebrates and raises awareness about the role that the FFA organization plays in the development of agriculture’s future leaders and the importance of agricultural education.

The week of Feb. 19-24 was the week that FFA chapters come together all over the nation to celebrate the organization. The Powell-Shoshone FFA staged many unique activities throughout the week that helped  members get to know each other and draw attention to their activities.

“It was amazing to see how FFA effects everyone in the school besides just AG kids,” chapter historian Kalli Ashby said. “You got to see what other people think FFA is and all the different perspectives on it.”

These activities included a work auction, chore night, game night and teacher breakfast.

The work auction is one of the chapter’s major fundraisers. It is mandatory for all members to be “sold” for eight hours of work. Every member has a short blurb that his/her friends wrote about them (which is usually funny). They are then auctioned off to members and businesses of our community.

“Not only was the food delish,” junior Ciara Payne said, “it was awesome seeing our community come together as on to support our FFA chapter.”

The chapter Sweetheart is also crowned at this event. The chapter sweetheart is a junior girl who is a member of the chapter. There were four total girls who ran for sweetheart this year: McKennah Buck, Alyssa Gould, Rylee Ramsey and Gracie McLain. The applicants first turned in an application along with a recommendation letter. After this the girls then were interviewed by Kathleen Bush and Emily Karst. The winner of chapter Sweetheart for 2017-18 is Buck. This activity was on Feb. 19 at the fairgrounds.

Feb. 20 was GreenHand Day. This day is for new freshman members. The greenhand degree is the first degree that the Powell-Shoshone FFA chapter offers. On this day all of the freshmen and new members have the privilege of dying one of their hands green. They also get to wear a huge wooden emblem around their neck.

All of the chapters have a basic question about FFA that the freshmen must answer correctly and receive a signature from all eight officer in order to go to the pizza party.

The next activity is chore night, a smaller FFA version of Homecoming Olympics. Each member who participates has a partner who goes throughout the course with them. Each pair is timed and the pair with the fastest time wins.

To be fair there was a girls division and a boys division. The obstacle course began with the two partners having to tie one of their legs together with one of their partners. They then had to walk a short distance they then untied their legs and had to move four straw bales (boys) and two bales (girls). After this, the teams moved on to take an apple off a nail that was hanging from a string using only their mouths. The pair then moved on to water pong. The first partner had to spin around five times with their head on a bat then make one cup in water pong. Once the first partner made it the second partner could begin. The next obstacle was for the two partners to rope a dummy. Once both the partners accomplished this they had to roll a tractor tire for a ways. The final obstacle was for both of the partners to make contact with a stake with at least one horse shoe.

The winners for boys were Preston Quarles and Brody Wells and for the girls was Kourtney Feller and Gracie McLain.

The following night was game night. At this event the chapter members come together to play board games. One of the games that the majority of the members participate in ultimate spoons, an intense game of spoons. You have a partner and one of you sits at the table with other players going through the cards trying to find four of a kind. Once that is found your partner charges through the green pod searching for the hidden spoons. Whoever is left without a spoon is out.

The final activity that the chapter put on was teacher breakfast, which is the chapter’s way to give back to the teachers and staff at the school. Some of the members come in at 6 a.m. Friday morning to cook breakfast for the teachers before school.

“It’s always nice to give back to the teachers that help us out through the years,” chapter president Bronson Smith said.