Granton FFA Earns Gold Rating,
Other Awards at
Wisconsin FFA Convention
For many years, the FFA program has been an
important part of the student experience at the Granton Middle/High School, and
that was evident at the Wisconsin FFA Convention earlier this month as the
Granton FFA chapter accumulated several awards.
“We had a lot of success. For our size, we were
one of the most highlighted chapters,” Granton FFA advisor Katie Reider told the
school board in a presentation at the board’s July meeting.
The 92nd Wisconsin FFA Convention took place July
6-8 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. Granton’s awards and activities
included the following.
Chapter Awards
The Granton FFA was the state winner of the
“Largest Percent FFA Membership to School Population” award, with 81 percent of
students in grades 7-12 being in FFA.
The Granton FFA chapter was also selected as the
Section 7 chapter represented in the Hall of Stars. Wisconsin is divided into 10
sections for FFA, with Section 7 including seven counties in north-central
Wisconsin, namely Clark, Wood, Portage, Marathon, Taylor, Lincoln and Price.
“Our chapter provided a resume highlighting
popular activities our chapter conducts throughout the year to provide other
chapters with ideas for new events. We also had a booth on display with pictures
of these events,” Reider wrote in a press release after the convention.
Granton FFA’s Food for America program ranked
sixth in the state. Activities that the chapter does as part of this program
include a farm tour for grades four and five, making ice cream with the fourth
grade, the annual Thanksgiving Skit and Feast, and “Ag in the Classroom” lessons
taught throughout the school year to grades kindergarten through five.
The Granton FFA was also recognized as a
gold-rated chapter. In April, the Granton FFA submitted its National
Chapter
Award application, which is based on the program of activities from the past
year.
“This application is pretty extensive and
outlines goals for each event, learning outcomes and an explanation of how it
relates to one of the quality standards for an activity,” Reider wrote.
The chapter officers completed the application,
which was submitted and rated. Gold-rated chapters have their applications
advance to nationals where they are ranked on a different system.
The Granton FFA chapter once again received a
gold rating and will advance to nationals. A new accomplishment for the chapter
was it ranked in the top 10 for each of the three areas of the National Chapter
Award application this year, among the other Wisconsin chapters.
Granton took ninth place in growing leaders, for
activities like its etiquette dinner. The Granton FFA chapter also took ninth
place in building communities, for activities like the Christmas Angel project
and making hats for people in need. Finally, Granton took seventh place in
strengthening agriculture. That part of the application focused on activities
like the chapter’s bike safety rodeo and Thanksgiving skit.
The Granton FFA was also the eighth-place chapter
overall for the national Chapter Award contest.
Individual/small group awards
State FFA Degrees were awarded to the 2021 and
2020 recipients, since the 2020 recipients never got the chance to walk the
stage and receive their award last year. The State FFA Degree is the highest
honor a member can earn at the state level. Rhiannon Reimer and Hannah Walter
were the 2020 recipients. Makenzie Muraski, Ashlee Piskow and Kristin Strey were
the 2021 recipients.
Additionally, Strey was named a Three Star Leader
“for her exemplary leadership in the chapter as 2020-21-chapter president,”
Reider wrote.
Three Star Leaders ae recognized for their
involvement in chapter activities in the following three areas: growing leaders,
building communities and strengthening agriculture.
The middle school quiz bowl team was state
runner-up. Participants were Joran Berg, Emma Brookhart and Tori Seif.
“I’ve never had a team place that high. It was
exciting for them,” said Reider
A couple FFA members earned proficiency awards.
Abby Woller took fourth place in fruit production. Reimer took first place in
vegetable production. Her application will advance to nationals, and she will
find out the results in August.
“The unique thing about Rhiannon’s DAE
(supervised agricultural experience) is that she has won the state contest in
two other proficiency categories: diversified crop production – entrepreneurship
in 2020 and fruit production in 2019,” Reider wrote.
Berg was recognized before the convention for
earning a silver placing in the AgriScience Fair based on a 12-week research
experiment she conducted using the school greenhouse to compare the effects of
different fertilizer sources on plant growth.
Also, the parliamentary procedure team competed.
Participants were Alexis Pongratz, Reimer, Lizzy Reinart, Abby Schoessow, Caleb
Schoessow and Woller.
Granton Area School Board members appreciated
Rieder’s report and said they were proud of all the FFA members’
accomplishments.
“It’s important to toot their horn because they
really did an awesome job,” said board member Cheryl Steinbach.
Editor Valorie Brecht contributed to this report.
Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI
July 28, 2021
Transcribed by
Dolores
M. Kenyon, August 27, 2021.
Web page by
James W. Sternitzky PhD,
August 29, 2021.
Return to Granton
Community Web Page