Submitted by Holly FroehlingState convention a big
success for Kimball FFA
This year’s 73rd Minnesota State Convention was held April 28-30, at the University of Minnesota campus in the Twin Cities. The theme for this year was “Ignite Your Potential”. There were 30 members that attended from the Kimball FFA Chapter. At this year’s convention, there were 2,600 students competing in team competitions. The teams that competed at state and their placings were:
o Dairy Cattle – 14th;
o Dairy Foods – 9th;
o Meats – 13th;
o Horse – 22nd;
o Poultry – 11th;
o Soils – 11th.
The Kimball FFA Chapter had two people running for state offices this year. They were Andy Klein and Jill Becker. Klein and Becker went through three days of extensive interviews and, after a nervous and exciting weekend, the 2002-03 officers were revealed. Andy Klein is the Minnesota FFA President and Jill Becker is the Minnesota FFA Secretary. This is a great accomplishment, considering that only six students in the whole state of Minnesota (which has a membership of roughly 10,000 students), receive this honor.
The Kimball FFA members that were competing this year were:
o Dairy Foods team, with Becky Lahr, Sarah Walker, Rachel Stein and Amanda Linn.
o Dairy Cattle team, with Chris Gregory, Chris Rose, Steve Landwehr and Drew Beck.
o Meats team, with Dave Schneider, Amanda Hentges and Luke Deutsch.
o Poultry team, with Diana Donnay, Amelia Hentges, Erich Deutsch and Becky Rosenow.
o Soils team, with Alanna Bowman, Jill Schiefelbein and Samantha Bowman.
o Horse team, with Kayleen Starcevic, Nicole Finifrock, Luke Becker and Tom Peterson. Official delegates for the Kimball FFA Chapter were Janelle Kuechle and Chris Sheehan. Serving as courtesy corp. was Zack Mackereth. Past Kimball students competing were Jill Becker, Andy Klein and Trevor Gottschalk. Jill Becker, Trevor Gottschalk, Chris Gregory and Alanna Bowman all received their State Degrees. To get a State Degree, you need to have earned and invested $2,000 in your job or business, completed a form of records and application and gone through a series of three interviews.
Chris Gregory and Trevor Gottschalk, both of the Kimball FFA Chapter, also were two of the 15 finalists in the State of Minnesota for the honor of State Star Farmer. Chris was finalist for his work at Mill Creek Dairy, and Trevor for his business called T “N” T tractor restorations.
The Kimball FFA Chapter also was awarded for increasing its membership, as compared to all other chapters in the state. Mr. Meyer was awarded with a jacket and the officer team won a trip to Valley Fair. Kimball FFA had also two finalists for state proficiencies, Andy Klein was state runner-up for vegetable production and Chris Gregory was also runner-up for Dairy Production.
The Kimball FFA Banquet is planned for 7 p.m., Monday, May 13, at Playland Ballroom.
The Kimball FFA is doing amazing things. Congratulations!
Gottschalk wins
Agri-Entrepreneurship
State Award
Trevor Gottschalk of Kimball, and a member of the Kimball FFA Chapter, was named the Agri-Entrepreneurship State FFA winner and received a $100 check at the state FFA convention. State winners will advance to competition to be named one of ten national winners. National winners will each receive a medal, plaque and a $1,000 check, and their chapter will receive $500 with which to promote entrepreneurship locally.
The Agri-Entrepreneurship award program recognizes
FFA members for developing an outstanding business plan, which they will use to start their own business.
The Agri-Entrepreneurship award program is sponsored by the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Inc., as a special award of the National FFA Foundation, Inc.