Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

FFA Alumni supports personal growth

Dedication to the youth is what the FFA Alumni is all about. The members garner support from entire communities and uses that support to provide for the Kimball FFA Chapter.

The Alumni remains very active in the community, alongside the students of the Kimball High FFA program and help with activities throughout the year, not just during the school season.

The 2016 officers for the organization are; Byron Wilke, President; Dustin Wilke,Vice-President; Emily Heidemann, secretary; and Sandy Lukassen, treasurer.

National FFA Week has already begun and the alumni have already been busy helping the FFA students and Kimball County High Ag Instructor, Sally Wheeler, with several events, such as a petting zoo for Kimball elementary students.

3~W Livestock Equipment will be helping with the petting zoo event by providing panels to put the livestock in.

March 2 will be the District Livestock and Meats Judging Contest held at the high school, and the Kimball Fairgrounds. There are several other contests held that day at the high school that others put on and the FFA Alumni helps provide what is needed for these contests.

According to FFA Alumni Member, Amber Wilke, the alumni is in charge of gathering enough livestock to have seven different classes of animals to be judged.

The FFA alumni is responsible for providing group leaders for the livestock contest, as well as people to help move the animals around while students are judging.

The alumni depends heavily on the help of many during large events and National FFA Week. They have volunteers who will help run cards to the tabulation room, set up and monitor the reasons rooms and register all the chapters when they arrive.

The group receives help from many livestock producers within a hundred mile radius that donate the use of their animals and some even haul them to the fairgrounds.

Harold Fricke, the butcher at Main Street Market, who was also very active in FFA, takes care of setting up the entire meats judging contest. The alumni provides support staff for the event, which averages 150-200 participants.

There are a lot of little things behind the scenes that the alumni does to make it easier for everyone involved, but according to Amber Wilke, it is a team effort.

“We are all so busy with our own businesses, jobs, college and so forth,” she said “so, anyone that is able to help us is appreciated more than they will ever know.”

The alumni continues to serve the local FFA organization in every way possible, to continue growing young leaders right here at home.

Kimball Health Services Public Relations Spokesman, Kerry Ferguson, was active in FFA throughout high school, when Dan Acheson was the FFA advisor and Ag instructor in Kimball.

Although his schedule keeps him from participating as much as he would like to, Ferguson said that his brothers, John and Dan, as well as all three of his sons – Charles, Kendall and Michael, were all active participants in the FFA program.

“I love how the FFA program develops community leaders. Members learn how to work together for a common goal, much like a good athletic team, but it also helps a student individually by developing their leadership skills and provides a learning platform that many kids might not have otherwise,” Ferguson said. “There are so many programs (in FFA), a student who is willing to work can usually find what they are good at and FFA helps them develop what they’ve learned into skills that will last a lifetime.”

The program has definitely helped me as an adult,” he continued. “My late father, John E. (Gene) Ferguson, liked to joke that our hog operation was ‘basically an FFA project that got out of hand’. He was a community leader in many ag-related organizations, and felt that it is extremely important for a person to be able to communicate. So he helped guide me toward developing those skills in various 4-H and FFA contests. I’ve tried to help push my sons along in the same fashion, and I think they’d say it has helped them too.”

Another event that the FFA Alumni will be offering soon is the “Feed, Labor Auction, and Article Auction” – coming up March 11 at the high school. Plan now to attend. If you have any type of donation for the auction – the alumni is asking you to please contact Justin Perry or John Perry, or any other FFA alumni member.