(Photo provided) Left to Right: Audrey Witten, Joel Schaad, Alyssa White, Alexis White, Kallie Boley.

By Reagan Witten

Chapter Historian

The Fort Frye FFA chapter has had a winter full of Career Development events. Several members spent numerous hours and lots of hard work preparing for their respective competition. We are beyond proud of all of these members for their continued dedication to representing the chapter well!

This year, our chapter proudly hosted the District 10 Public Speaking Contest. Chapter members worked together to organize the event to ensure the event ran smoothly. The chapter also had 5 members compete across all four areas of competition.

Audrey Witten and Joel Schaad competed in the FFA Creed Speaking Contest where they memorized all 5 paragraphs of the Creed and answered tough questions regarding the Creed. Audrey placed 8th in the district and Joel placed 13th in the District.

(Photo provided) Left to Right: Levi Wagner, and Owen Duskey.

In the Beginning Prepared Public Speaking Contest, Alyssa White delivered a 5-7 minute memorized speech on the average age of farmers. She placed 1st in the District which allowed her to qualify for the state competition!

Alexis White presented a 6-8 minute memorized speech on sustainability in agriculture and answered judges’ questions with confidence. She placed 2nd in the District in Advanced Prepared, and also qualified for state.

Kallie Boley competed in the Extemporaneous Speaking Contest, where she pulled an agriculture related topic, prepared a speech in 30 minutes, delivered the 4-6 minute speech, and answered questions. She placed 2nd and qualified for the state contest as well.

We are so proud of them and what they have accomplished! We wish them the best of luck at the state contest on March 7th.

For the first time in the chapter’s history, we had a team compete in the Ag Sales Contest. The team included Peyton Offenberger, Mollie Lang, Grant Witten, and Clinton Erb.

(Photo provided) Left to Right: Mollie Lang, Peyton Offenberger, Clinton Erb, Grant Witten.

The contest emphasizes real-world skills such as customer relations, identifying client needs, developing a pre-call plan, and professionally presenting a product.

The team prepared and delivered a complete sales presentation, demonstrating their knowledge and professionalism. The team placed 6th in the District! We are proud of you all for trying something new and representing our chapter well.

A couple members of the chapter also competed in the Tractor Troubleshooting Contest. Levi Wagner and Owen Duskey used their mechanical knowledge and problem solving skills to diagnose and solve issues on tractors in a 20-minute time limit.

They also had to explain the issue and how to fix it all while following safety protocols. We are so happy to share that they earned 8th place in the District. Way to go guys!

The chapter also had an Agricultural Communications team consisting of Reiley Miller, Kallie Boley, Hannah Weiker, and Parker Burris.

(Photo provided) Left to Right: Reiley Miller, Hannah Weiker, Kallie Boley, Parker Burris.

The team took an online test and placed 15th in the State. They had the opportunity to compete in the State Agricultural Communications Career Development Event at The Ohio State University.

They created a full communication plan to highlight the Ohio Agronomy Guide. Their plan included a broadcast video, feature story, magazine layout, and a social media plan which all promoted the Ohio Agronomy Guide.

They placed 7th overall at the State Contest. We are extremely proud of you all for your dedication and commitment to representing our chapter!

As winter CDEs begin to wrap up, the hard work doesn’t stop here. Several teams are already beginning to prepare for the upcoming spring CDEs. We are excited to see the continued progress and success in our members in the coming months to finish out the year.