COVINGTON — On April 6, the Covington-UVCC FFA members presented for the Top Ten Premier FFA Chapter awards. The National Chapter Award is designed to recognize chapters that excel in the areas of Growing Leaders, Building Communities and Strengthening Agriculture. Covington FFA was named a Top Ten in all three areas and therefore had the chance to present for the title of Premier Chapter.

Tori Quinter and Ryan Rohr presented in the Growing Leaders category. This highlighted Virtual Showmanship activity which allowed kids to show their animals to try and make up for the COVID-19 shutdown, the Experimentals Club, which distributed at-home science experiment supplies.

Mara Newhouse and Mic Barhorst presented in the Building Communities category. This area included activities like the chapter’s Friday Food program, Teach the Meet and Veteran’s Day. The Friday Food program included weekly food bags that were distributed K-12. The “Teach the Meet” was an activity that included our elementary students on Google Meet, where FFA members taught elementary students different features on Google Meet including mute and unmute, how to raise your hand, turn the camera on and off, and how to place the camera perfectly.

Gavin Swank and Audrey Tobe presented in the Strengthening Agriculture category. Some activities highlighted were Flat Aggie, and the National Convention Watch Party. Flat Aggie was created in order to connect the elementary and high school students during the pandemic. Members created lessons and activities with videos to explain agricultural production. The National Convention Watch Party was an event where students came together with their families and watched a session of the National FFA Convention.

The Covington-UVCC FFA Chapters National Chapter Award Application placed in the top 10% of the over 300 FFA chapters in the state of Ohio which ranks them as a Gold Medal chapter. The application now moves on to the national level in hopes of being recognized as a Three Star Chapter.