Celebrating National FFA Week

High school FFA Chapter activities

National FFA Week is February 15-22 and our local high school chapter is celebrating with a variety of activities.

Thermopolis FFA Chapter events for National FFA week include dress up days, an appreciation breakfast, dodgeball and more.

They wrap up their events by partnering with P6 Station on Saturday, Feb. 22. FFA members will take over P6 and all tips will go to them for traveling expenses. Dine in from 4-8 p.m. or take out from 4-9 p.m.

Their popular petting zoo will not be held during FFA week this year, it is being planned for a later date.

This year, the students are pushing for success through multiple different contests. Members recently participated in the agriscience fair, and they are gearing up for proficiency awards, star awards, state degrees, chapter degrees, greenhand degrees, career development events and leadership development events. 

Agriscience members consist of sophomores and juniors, including the following members and systems, Animal Systems: Ryan Axtell, Taylor Ivie, and Ella Slover. Social Science: Tannen Birdsley, Summer Galovich, Layla Epperson, Maile McCumber, Jayssie Owsley, Kaycee Stothart, and Laine Boren. Food Products & ENR: Cody Bomengen, Morgan Jones, Madi Shaffer, and Bridger Peil. Plant, Power Structural: Ellis Webber, Kaden Scheel, Korbin Brill, Chloee Owsley, Ava Dafoe, Alec Martinez, Camden Weyer and Jay Ritchey. 

All members have an SAE (Supervised Agriculture Experience) and all 47 members submit a proficiency degree. On top of the proficiency degrees, members get their greenhand degrees as freshmen, chapter degrees as sopohmores, and state degrees as seniors. Four seniors have applied for star awards including Tymber Eckley for Star Farmer, Hayden Overfield for Star Agriscience, Taylor Agar for Star Placement and Rylee Agar for Star Business.

This year's chapter officers are:

Tymber Eckley - President 

Hayden Overfield - Vice President 

Madison Shaffer - 2nd Vice President 

Ava Dafoe - 3rd Vice President 

Alec Martinez - Secretary 

Ryan Axtell - Treasurer 

Tera Kraushaar - Reporter 

Korbin Brill - Sentinel 

Mac McCumber - Parliamentarian

Advisor - Britton Van Heule

Assistant Advisor - Linda McCumber 

Middle school FFA Chapter

To celebrate National FFA Week, the Big Springs Middle School Chapter is hosting a full week of events.

The group is an affiliated chapter with 91 members, active membership is at 21 members

This year's officers include:

President - Amelia Strickland

Vice President - Logan Stewart

Secretary - Cason Johnson

Treasurer - Cameron Martinez

Reporter - Sydnee Eplin

Sentinel - William Hensley

Advisor - Becky Martinez

During the week, members did community service projects, delivered thank you cards and goodies to community members and businesses, hosted games and dress up and more.

This is the third year as a chapter for Big Springs. and Mrs. Advisor Becky Martinez was the founder of the middle school chapter. Prior to forming their own chapter, they were part of the Thermopolis FFA.

Last year at State FFA Convention the chapter was named a Gold Emblem chapter and also named as one of the finalists as a top 6 chapter in the state, making them the first middle school chapter to receive this award in Wyoming.

In the Career Development Events (CDEs), they were named the champion middle school meats evaluation team and the poultry team was also the high scoring team. The horse team placed 7th and the livestock team was 12th. In addition, five members were named state champions for their Agriscience research, four were silver and one was bronze.

The Big Springs Chapter hosts several community service events each year including a food drive for the Christmas Basket program, boxes for Operation Christmas Child, cleaning the horse stalls at the fairgrounds monthly in the winter, hosted an Ag Expo for 3rd-6th grade students to teach them about agriculture and more.