FFA banquet Monday night

The Thermopolis Future Farmers of America Chapter will be having their annual banquet Monday, May 18 at Hot Springs County High School.

Dinner will be served in the high school agriculture shop at 6 p.m. with an awards presentation to follow in the school auditorium.

FFA Advisor Britton Van Heule said a big part of the night is recognizing people who have helped.

“We use the banquet to thank the community for what they do,” he said.

Students run the banquet and decide on the awards, Van Heule said, making the event a focus on the teenager’s ability to work and lead.

FFA alumni will donate dinner and they are also going to host a silent auction.

“If they raise $600, that’s a scholarship for a kid,” Van Heule said. “This year we’re giving out two $500 scholarships.”

Van Heule said that although the banquet is usually held at the middle school, the event was moved to the high school this year because some alumni wanted a change of venue. As the auditorium offers the best acoustics for awards, it was the chosen location.

And although the banquet marks the end of the school year, Van Heule said students still have some things going on during the summer months.

Every year Wyoming FFA puts together a leadership camp.

Thermopolis has 11 students attending, which Van Heule said is great because closer to five or six students have signed up in past years.

The leadership camp is done in two separate weeklong sessions, June 9th through the 13th and June 15th through the 19th.

Later that month, some students will visit Casper College for livestock judging June 22nd through the 24th.

In the future Van Heule would like to take his students to Texas Tech University during the summer.

He said this would be a great opportunity for the FFA chapter because Texas Tech is ranked first in meats judging in the U.S. and they’re ranked second in livestock judging.

Those rankings are from the NCAA.

However, Van Heule said the students would have to fundraise as the budget doesn’t have enough money to support the trip.