Left to right: FFA Members who attend Ohio FFA Camp Muskingum this summer Taysa Felver, Courtney Riffell, Macenzy Hemmelgarn, Alexis Biddlestone, Izabella Painter, and Ben Kitts.
Courtesy photo
For the Miami Valley Today
BRADFORD — On Wednesday, Aug. 25, Bradford Exempted Village Schools had their first day back from summer. The Bradford-UVCC FFA Chapter has an officer team of five consisting of Alexis Barhorst, president; Isabella Hamilton, vice president; Devon Hawes, treasurer; Molly Clark, secretary; and Isabella Brewer, reporter. The FFA advisor/AG teacher, Nic Baumer, is teaching five agricultural classes this year with a total of about 125 students between junior high and high school who are interested and ready to learn. These kids are typically future or current FFA members, so these numbers are looking very good to the Bradford-UVCC FFA.
Many FFA members competed over the summer in the Darke County Fair, including three members of the officer team. There are a lot of elementary kids at Bradford that show at the fair that they are excited to see continue that path as they get older. Isabella Hamilton showed four pigs this year. She won her class and division the first day, won fourth with her other hog, and the next day won her class and got second. Molly Clark showed one goat, two pigs, and two sheep. She got second in class with her goat. Both of her pigs were class winners. One sheep was reserve division fourth and fifth overall. Her other sheep was champion division six. Molly was third overall showman. Alexis showed two dairy steers at the fair, George and Dax. One of her cows got fifth in the junior fair and third in showmanship. Her other cow had to be shown by someone else because her cows were in the same class and it got seventh.
FFA camp was a blast this summer. Ben Kitts, Macenzy Hemelgarn, Izabella Painter, Tasya Felver, and Alexis Biddlestone were gone from June 28-July 2 having tons of fun. They met a lot of new people and made a lot of new friends. The members also had the opportunity to meet the new Ohio FFA officer team. They played games and experienced/participated in a lot of fun activities.
Almost everyone on the officer team has previous officer experience, which will only make this upcoming year more successful, fun, and impactful for the members and chapter alike. It also helped with meeting familiarity when the time came. The officers conducted their first chapter meeting of the year on Sept. 14. They opened the meeting up to FFA members and their families. The chapter had a pretty good turnout and served hamburgers, mac and cheese, fruit cups, and cookies. The officers spoke about what exactly FFA is, the different career development events (CDE’s) available to compete in, what a supervised agricultural experience (SAE) is, what kind of trips members can go in, and other miscellaneous facts to help the parents better understand what their kid is getting involved in. Chapter President Alexis Barhorst awarded the first member of the month this year at the meeting. The award went to a sophomore in the chapter, Macenzy Hemelgarn. Macenzy was very active over the summer in FFA activities. She attended FFA Camp and helped to raise money for the chapter through cleaning up trash at Eldora Speedway and cleaning a school bus. She is setting a great example of dedication and commitment for other members to follow.
The chapter kicked off its annual fruit sales on Oct. 7. If interested, be on the lookout for details on Bradford FFA’s Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. Orders can be placed through any FFA member.
