RELATED: Talawanda FFA members rack up awards at competition
Advisor Mike Derringer saluted them.
“This group is special because of sheer numbers. There are nine names on banners in the hallway. These are great kids and this is an impressive senior class,” Derringer said, referring to recognitions at various competitions and he went on to say members had been asking for a drinking fountain in the vocational agriculture shop. “This is the year we got the drinking fountain in the ag shop.”
While appreciated, that was hardly the major accomplishment of the year.
Statewide recognition of the local FFA chapter is illustrated by the fact that two members have been elected to state-wide office. Emily Mullen was elected state treasurer and Emma Sterwerf vice president at large at the recent state convention for the coming year.
“We have two state FFA officers this year. There are 25,000 FFA members in Ohio led by 11 state FFA officers, two of which are our members,” Derringer said later. “This is a huge honor. We haven’t had a state officer since 2002. We will have two state officers from the Talawanda/Butler Tech FFA Chapter.”
Announcement of the chapter’s scholarships for graduating seniors is always a high point of the annual banquet and the list of memorial scholarships has grown over the years with money going to help those seniors who have made strong contributions to the year’s success.
The Les Judd Memorial Scholarship was presented to outgoing chapter president Emily Mullen. Other retiring officers to be included in the scholarship recognitions were Jacob Schlichter, the vice president this past year, who received the Doug Vizedom Memorial Scholarship; Austin Garner, retiring secretary, who was given the Jeff Kolb Memorial Scholarship; Treasurer AJ Schwab, the Tari Vollmer Memorial Scholarship; and Student Advisor Cody Kiefer, the Bill and Becky Miller Memorial Scholarship.
Other memorial scholarship winners were Emma Glazier, the Gordon Butterfield Memorial Scholarship; Josh Tussey, the Dwain Freels Memorial Scholarship; Morgan Abrams, the Tim Gabbard Memorial Scholarship; and Lauren Baker, the Don Lake Memorial Scholarship.
Outgoing chapter reporter Brandon Eschenbrenner was one of two recipients of FFA Merit Scholarships, along with Nick Carr.
The other outgoing officer from the past year’s officer team was Sentinel Aubrey Evans.
Installed as officers for the coming year at the May 13 meeting were: President Jacob Schulte, Vice President Sarah Allen, Secretary Wally Minges, Treasurer Kyndall Haven, Reporter Caroline Vonderhaar, Sentinel Emily Jones and Student Advisor Eric Glaab.
Schulte welcomed everyone to the program as the incoming president calling it “an absolute honor to be up here.”
He said in his early years, he had no interest in agriculture, although he knew what FFA was.
“In sixth grade, if you had told me I would be president of Talawanda’s largest organization, I’d have never believed it,” he said.
A tradition of the banquet each year is to welcome honorary members in appreciation of their contributions to the chapter and this year, three were indicted — Frank Thorman, Sharon Bays, and Brad Guckian.
Among the chapter’s awards announced at the program were a series of Star performers: Star Entrepreneur Emma Glazier, Star Placement winner Cody Kiefer, Star Farmer Austin Garner, Star Competitor Josh Tussey and Star in Ag Business Sarah Allen.
Chapter advisors Kari Roberts and Derringer presented Star Awards to outstanding members of each class in the FFA program, starting with “Greehands” the first-year students in the program, either as freshmen or upperclassmen in FFA for the first time this past year.
The Star Greenhands were Eliza Jones and Peyton Weekley from among a group of Outstanding Greenhands along with Justin Beckner, Jaelin Keesler, Joseph Copeland, Dalton Norris and Grace Suit.
Star Sophomores were Colleen Minges and Rachel Tussey. The rest of that group of Outstanding Sophomore were Kyndal Haven, Dakota Kiefer, Austin Lake and Matt Butterfield.
Star Juniors were Caroline Vonderhaar and Tony Dsuban. The other Outstanding Juniors were Eric Glaab, Sarah Allen, Alex Herrmann, Jake Schulte and Wally Minges.
Star Seniors were Nick Carr and AJ Schwab. The other Outstanding Seniors were Beth Hansford, Morgan Abrams, Aubrey Evans, Josh Tussey and Emma Glazier.
Jacob Schlichter and Emily Mullen were named recipients of the Jacquemin and Zimmerman Heart and Spirit Award, named for the two former chapter advisors Jack Jacquemin and Dan Zimmerman.
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