Things will be back to normal this year for the Granton FFA Alumni Dairy Breakfast, as it will be held in person at the Granton Fire Station, 21 South Main Street.

Serving for the June 6 breakfast will begin at 7 a.m. and run through 12:30 p.m.

“The breakfast will feature all the great food as in the past years, including pancakes provided by Princess Pancake catering, for added fun in the service line. The ever-popular special eggs will be available, as well as cheese curds, ice cream, applesauce, maple syrup, butter, milk, juice and coffee,” Cheryl Steinbach, Granton FFA Alumni vice-president, wrote in a press release. 

The cost of the breakfast is $7 for adults, $3.50 for children in Kindergarten through fifth grade and free for preschoolers. If people don’t wish to sit down for the meal, they can purchase meals to go; however, there will be no drive-through lane.

FFA members will host a petting zoo on site. There will also be a bucket raffle with various door prizes. Parking will be provided on site, along with handicapped parking.

Proceeds will go to support the local FFA chapter and the agriculture education department.

“The Granton FFA chapter has had a phenomenal year despite the pandemic and the alumni [are] always happy and willing to support them in their projects,” Steinbach wrote.

FFA members completed several community service projects this year. They made over 260 masks for student and staff in the school district. FFA families and school staff joined forces to sponsor gifts for 26 children in the Clark County Christmas Angel program, and FFA members helped to wrap gifts and package bags of food for the project. In addition, with help from a National FFA grant, the chapter donated $3,000 worth of food and other items to the Cattails Cottage this year, which supports cancer patients and their caregivers.

A couple of new projects conducted by the Granton Chapter this year, with support from the alumni, included hosting an etiquette dinner and making and distributing harvest bags. The etiquette dinner featured a four-course-meal where members learned many different meal etiquette tips, such as proper place settings, passing of food and condiments, use of various utensils and much more. The Harvest bags project entailed members preparing 25 bags of snacks and treats, which they gave to local farmers during the busy fall season as a way to say, “thank you.” They also shared words of appreciation and encouragement.

Other service projects included chapter members making tie blankets to donate to the Ronald McDonald House as part of their annual lock-in. The lock-in had a special twist this year, thanks to the support of the Granton FFA Alumni, as the alumni purchased one of two packages at the state alumni convention in February to bring the state FFA officers to town for the lock-in. All the middle school and high school  students had the opportunity to share team-building and leadership activities at this event.

The alumni also sponsored students to attend the first in-person leadership workshop in a year, this past spring at Wisconsin Dells. Members worked on personal and chapter goal setting as part of the workshop.

The Granton FFA Alumni also helped host the dinner for the spring FFA banquet and awards ceremony and sponsored several awards. They also helped sponsor the meal for the spring farm tour, prizes and food for the lock-in, and more.

Upcoming events, the FFA Alumni plan to sponsor several members to attend the in-person State FFA Convention to be held in Madison in July. The parliamentary procedure tam won first place at district and sectional competitions to earn the trip to state. Members of the team are Lizzy Reinart, Abby Woller, Alexis Pongratz, Caleb Schoessow, Abby Schoessow and Rhiannon Reimer. The middle school quiz bowl team also won first at districts and sectionals, so they too will be headed to state. Team members include Emma Brookhart, Tori Seif and Jordan Berg.

The Granton FFA has seven students who will be recognized as gold-rated proficiency award recipients, including two state finalists, Abby Woller in fruit production and Rhiannon Reimer in vegetable production. The chapter is waiting to hear the results of their National Chapter Award application for this year, but they were recognized this past fall as a 3-Star Chapter at the virtual National FFA Convention. They were also awarded first place in the state last year with the largest Precent Chapter Member Award, highlighting the fact that 93.5 percent of the school is enrolled in FFA.

“Supporting the annual dairy breakfast will help to ensure that the Granton FFA Alumni can continue to provide support to the FFA chapter and members,” Steinbach wrote. Come to the dairy breakfast because the food is delicious, [it’s] fun and entertaining, and the proceeds are for a good cause.”