FFA held its annual banquet on Sunday, May 16 at 5 p.m. at the Pretty Prairie Farm in Urbana. Approximately 132 people attended the banquet in total. During the meeting, a slideshow was displayed in the background for CDEs and events that the Urbana FFA has participated in. Urbana FFA Advisors Mrs. Zachrich and Mr. Wilhelm handed out awards during the ceremony.
The meeting began with the chapter appreciation awards where Urbana staff and other supporters were recognized for their dedication. Those who were recognized received strawberry jam which was made and preserved by the Food Science class. Next was the honorary chapter farmer ceremony where we recognized those who are dedicated to the Urbana FFA chapter and have helped tremendously, these people really stick out to us. This year’s honorary chapter farmers were Joe and Kelsey Anderson, David Sapp and Rusty Meyers.
Shortly after, the FFA Officers recognized those who worked hard to earn their chapter degree. Chapter degree recipients were: Jonathan Hildebrand, Faith Denkewalter, Naomi Loxley, McKayla Mills, and Johnny Moore. This year’s state degree recipients were Janie Wallace and Kendra Baccus. Most CDE’s were virtual this year, but the Urbana FFA participated anyway. The CDE’s participated in this year were: soil evaluation, food science, parliamentary procedure, job interview, public speaking, livestock judging, equine judging, agriculture communications, meat evaluation, milk quality and products, animal behavior and farm business management.
SAE proficiency awards were given to students who excelled at the chapter level in their Supervised Agricultural Experience program. Justin Preece was the state proficiency winner for ag placement in ag mechanics. This year’s top fruit sale sellers were Kendra Baccus at $1,220, Shelby Stoops at $964 and Naomi Loxley at $804. The FFA scholars awards were given to FFA students who maintained a 3.0 GPA all throughout the school year. Following the scholar awards, two $500 scholarships were given to seniors at the banquet.
The recipients of the scholarships were Janie Wallace and Ashley Gemienhardt. After the scholarship awards, the star awards were announced. The Star Greenhand was awarded to Nathan Deere, the Outstanding Sophomore to Faith Denkewalter, Star Ag Placement to Kendra Baccus, Star Chapter Farmer to Janie Wallace and lastly the Outstanding Senior award to Hailey Combs.
The senior officers gave their senior speeches and then to wrap up the banquet the officer team installed the 2021-2022 officer team. The President position went from Janie Wallace to Kendra Baccus, Vice President position went from Trey Williams to Faith Denkewalter, Treasurer position went from Faith Denkewalter to Jonathan Hildebrand, Reporter position went from Hailey Combs to Marah Kerns, Secretary position went from Ashley Gemienhardt to McKayla Mills, and the Sentinel position went from Kendra Baccus to Nathan Deere.
With all of the restrictions this year, we were happy to get together to recognize the chapter and student accomplishments and look forward to more in-person activities next year.
