Premier Leadership

On Sunday 26 Red Wing FFA members went up to The University of Minnesota to participate in the 2012 FFA State Convention. The Convention went from Sunday to Tuesday. This years state Convention’s theme was ‘We Are’. Red Wing had 5 CDE teams compete at State Convention. Several of the students help with Courtesy Corp, where they got to help set up for the conventions General sessions. Some students got to help out with packing up food for people in need around the world. Red Wing ranked 6th Chapter in Minnesota, and got the most service hours in all of Minnesota.

Ben-Dakota Nutter
Red Wing FFA Reporter

The Red Wing FFA is holding a Hunger Banquet Today. The reason we are holding a Hunger Banquet is to help show the unequal balance of resources all across world. At the Banquet the arriving guests will receive a card at random that tells then Who they are and classifies then as poor class, middle class, or rich class. Everyone at the Banquet will be divided into the class, just like the rest of the world, sixty percent of the guests will be poor, thirty percent of the guests will be middle class and ten percent will be rich. Each class will get a different amount of food, what they eat, and were they eat. All the guests will take part in a open simulation, meaning they can do anything they want, (within reason) for example if a rich person would like to give there food to the poor they can, or if the poor wish to protest the distribution of food they can. The guests are encouraged to be creative during this twenty minute simulation. There will also be a few students their who will be speaking on this topic.

Ben-Dakota Nutter
Red Wing FFA Reporter

All of Red Wing FFA’s CDE teams have finished their regional meets.  All of the following teams competed in Regionals: Farm Business Management, Floriculture, Horse Evaluation, Parliamentary Procedure, Nursery Landscape, Meats Evaluation, and Small Animals.  Out of these competitions, Farm Business Management placed 3rd, Horse Evaluation placed 1st, Parliamentary Procedure placed 1st, and Nursery Landscape placed 1st and all of these teams advanced to state.  The other teams unfortunately did not place high enough to advance to state,  but still performed well.

Our CDE teams have made great improvements and have done remarkably better than last year.  Our Parliamentary Procedure team took first in the Regional competition over Zumbrota-Mazeppa who had, up until this point, taken first for the past four years.

Farm Business Management getting ready to compete.

Nursery Landscape took first over six different schools and won by over 400 points with all of our team members placing in the top 10 individuals (4 of whom placed in the top four).  Horse Evaluation also performed well in their competition and took first.  Farm Business Management took third in an extremely tough competition and their efforts lead them to state.  All of our other teams practiced hard and did relatively well in their competitions and our hopes and confidence are very high for them in their future competitions.

The CDE teams that advanced to state will compete at FFA State Convention on May 1st- 3rd.  We wish all of the teams good luck and we will post the results of State competitions once we compete and get our results back.

This past week (including today) was the National FFA week.  Every school and every FFA chapter celebrates this week in a different way but the base principle for FFA week remains the same, to  raise agriculture awareness and to let the community know that the FFA is still a strong and unified organization.  Here at Red Wing, we had dress up days for each day of the week, we had a teacher appreciation breakfast, and we have a lock in tonight (Friday the 25th and February).  The schedule for the dress up days goes as follows.

Tuesday: Blue Day

Wednesday: Gold Day

Faculty and Students at the Teacher Appreciation Breakfast.

Thursday: Duct Tape Day

Friday: Flannel Friday

The dress up days were mostly just for fun and to raise FFA awareness.  Our biggest project for FFA week was a Leadership Lock-in that we planned at the Red Wing Gymnastics Center.  It is literally a lock in, because it starts at seven pm tonight and goes until seven in the morning.  Some of our activities will include dodge ball, team building activities, leadership strengthening games, diving into the foam pit, and socializing with friends.  We have high hopes for this event and we already have many people signed up to attend.

Hopefully our efforts have raised awareness about FFA and provided fun and beneficial opportunities for the students at Red Wing High.

Zach Phillips

Red Wing FFA Reporter

The FFA Emblem - Agricultural Education

The FFA was founded as the Future Farmers of America in 1928.  The name has since changed to the National FFA Organization.  The student delegates in the FFA voted to do so because Agriculture reaches horizons beyond farming.  Farming is a vital part of Agriculture, but it does not define Agriculture entirely.

FFA highly stresses focus on leadership THROUGH Agriculture.  One of its main purposes is to inspire new leaders for a new era in the world.  It also strives to prepare students for the future and help them develop their own personal goals regarding their future careers.  It opens up a wide range of jobs and opportunities that involve agriculture for students in FFA.

Locally and globally, the world is in dire need of people who will stand up and be leaders.  Change and progression for good is what the world needs and will always need, and the FFA offers young, fresh minds the opportunity to be a leader in some way.  The community will improve based on the people within it.  It does not necessarily mean that everybody will hold positions of power for leadership, but that people will be leaders in their community just by being an informed citizen who will peacefully improve things that they believe to be wrong or unjust.

Zach Phillips
Red Wing FFA Reporter