FFA brings home Chapter of the Year Award

Green River's FFA chapter may be smaller and newer than many other chapters across the state, but the students showed their skills and their heart during the recent FFA Wyoming State Convention, where Green River received the Chapter of the Year Award.

"The kids did amazing this year," Liz Thoman, the FFA advisor, said. "Definitely one for the books."

While this was the 96th annual FFA Wyoming Convention, Green River's chapter is only seven years old. They're also a relatively small chapter from one of the smaller towns.

Thoman explained that, unlike in sports, the FFA State Convention doesn't divide competitors by factors like size. Instead, "we're all shoved in there together," she said, explaining all the chapters in the state compete against one another. This is significant since there are around 60 chapters in Wyoming.

"We don't come from an agriculture community for the most part," Thoman added of Green River's group. "So it's really cool for these kids to be in a chapter that's so young and not essentially ag-related, but to do that well and to say, 'hey, it doesn't matter if you've been here the longest or if you're the best at all the other contests, you can be a well-rounded FFA chapter and still be able to compete and get that.' So it's quite a substantial feat for these kids to receive that award."

The Chapter of the Year Award is designed to recognize FFA chapters that actively implement the mission and strategies of the organization, according to Thoman. She explained that each chapter fills out an application to show what activities they are doing, and the most well-rounded chapter is chosen for the award.

"These chapters improve chapter operations using activities that emphasize growing leaders, building communities and strengthening agriculture," the award requirements explain. "Chapters are rewarded for providing educational experiences for the entire membership."

One of the important things to realize about FFA, according to Thoman, is that even though the organization focuses on agriculture, as the name "Future Farmers of America" implies, it doesn't only teach ag-related skills.

"What some people don't know is it's one of the largest youth leadership organizations that kids can be involved in," Thoman said. "So essentially, they're gaining leadership skills. And part of the mission statement of FFA is that they are giving kids premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agriculture education. So essentially, they're instilling all those qualities and skills and achievements through agriculture."

This mission is especially exemplified by the Green River chapter.

"It's cool to see these kids have success and let people know that FFA is not just all about farming, because I think most of my kids here don't want to go be a farmer," Thoman added. "But the leadership skills and the career success that they're going to get out of being involved in FFA is really why they're in it."

The FFA State Convention helps students work toward these goals by having different contests for individual students and teams to compete in, from directly agriculture-related contests like livestock judging to other career-related events, like speaking and marketing contests.

Green River had several students and teams finish in the top 10 in their contests, as well as having a State Champion in Triston Drozd, who won the Extemporaneous Speaking competition. By winning, Drozd will now have the opportunity to represent Wyoming in the National FFA Convention.

Green River's students were excited at their levels of success during the State Convention, even if there were moments it felt surreal, according to Thoman.

"A lot of them, they've never gotten to go up on the stage at State Convention before," she explained of the students. "So that was really cool for them to get that experience and to have that recognition that, hey, Green River's doing stuff too."

State Convention Results:

Agriculture Issues: 7th High Team

Champion Extemporaneous Speaker: Triston Drozd

High Individual in Electrical Systems

Gold Emblem Agriscience Fair Project

Employment Skills: 4th High Individual 

Ag Sales: 3rd High Team

Marketing Plan: 5th High Team

Leadership Sweepstakes: 5th High Chapter

Horse Judging: 9th High Team

Vet Science: 9th High Team