While this year was something we might have only imagined in a dream, school, sports, and clubs are starting to return to what we are more familiar with. Although in-person activities have and still are limited, Chelan FFA does have accomplishments to highlight.
First off, a special recognition to this year’s FFA Officer team who has overcome challenge after challenge this year. They are: President Aliyah Finch, Vice President Gunner Gleasman, Secretary Casandra Sanchez, Treasurer Arabelle Finch, Reporter Arabelle Finch, and Sentinel Tiernan Davis.
On January 30, the Chelan FFA Alumni hosted a COVID Cattle Judging contest for our FFA members. A huge thank you to Rick Hanson for putting the event together, as well as Rick, Todd and Amber Corrigan, and Jim and Jeanie Bishop for providing the cattle, Robin and Breanne Hanson for providing the meals for participants, Breanne for creating and scoring the judging cards, and Rod Cool for being our official judge. We had 10 students who were able to participate. These students were Tiernan Davis, 6th grader Maddoc Finch (early preparation for High School Judging), Casandra Sanchez, Aliyah Finch, Beau Nordby, Jessica Wiese, Aaron DeJarnatt, Kassidy Wilfong, Arabelle Finch, and Clayton Reeves. These classes presented a great challenge for students, with Tiernan receiving the highest individual score. Our members also had the opportunity to meet our new Washington FFA State Executive Director Jason Bullock, who made a special trip to check out the competition with Washington FFA’s State Reporter Haley Gilman.
FFA Week was February 20 through February 27. While activities were a bit more “socially distanced” than normal, our chapter officers still found creative ways to recognize and include members. We had spirit days, with some of the best overall participation that has been seen across the school. We also had Greenhand Initiation and a Staff Thank You Breakfast. The different supporters of our school district, including teachers, office staff, bus drivers, custodians, lunch ladies, and district office administration received small tokens of our appreciation, because it is truly difficult to say how lost students may be without everyone who works/volunteers for the Lake Chelan School District. The main draw was the Relay Competition which had ten teams consisting of 5 members each, with different timed challenges they had to complete, including a free throw, darts, cup stack knock down, giant ring toss, and corn hole. Teams had the ability to take time off for meeting different requirements, such as all dressing up in theme, knocking down all cups, acing their corn holes throws, etc. Team results were as follows:
1st Place with a time of 10 seconds – Deasel Kenck, Charlie Bordner, Teagen Moody, Decker Marlin, and Colt Funk
2nd Place with a time of 34 seconds – Quin McLaren, Reed Stamps, Joey Gaspar, Ethan Kehl, and Dillon McCardle
3rd Place with a time of 35 seconds – Arabelle Finch, Ryan Rainville, Rylen Moody, Luke Christopherson, and Madi Barker
Other Teams Included:
Miss Hanson, Mrs. Nygreen, Mrs. Finch, Mrs. Rodriguez, and Mrs. Martinez
Katie Rainville, Gunner Gleasman, AJ Martinez, JD Gonzalez, and Ella Polley
Mr. Pastor, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Finch, Mr. Dundas, and Mr. Domser
Kira Sandoval, Olivia Strandberg, Juliana Flores, Aliyah Finch, and Greer Bainbridge
Hailee Huddleston, Cynthia Garcia, Ms. Dezellem, Mr. Lund, and Kassidy Wilfong
Tiernan Davis, Tyler Fogelson, Hunter Crawford, and Aadan Kenck
FFA Officer Team
On Monday, March 22, the Virtual State Apple Evaluation took place with Chelan’s Team placing 5th overall. Our team consisted of Clayton Reeves, Irene Hernandez, Kassidy Wilfong, and Arabelle Finch. Clayton was our highest scorer, with three of our team having never judged before.
On Tuesday, March 23, we found out our Chapter President Aliyah Finch will be awarded her Washington FFA State Degree, which is the highest award Washington can bestow upon a member. This degree requires a larger investment of time and effort beyond what a typical FFA member’s career might look like. A separate highlight article will be written for Aliyah.
The North Central Washington Junior Livestock Show in Moses Lake took place March 25-27. We had one student attend, Kassidy Wilfong, who showed lambs. For market, her lamb projects placed third and fourth for FFA. For Showmanship, Kassidy was recognized as the top sheep showman, which takes into account both animal and showman appearance, ability to handle pressure and adversity, prior time spent working with the animal, knowledge of livestock project, and overall ability to showcase the animal. On Saturday of the show, our chapter was finally able to participate in its first in-person activity against other schools. Our Livestock Judging team of Kassidy Wilfong, Beau Nordby, Clayton Reeves, Casandra Sanchez, Aaron DeJarnatt, and Tiernan Davis placed 7th overall out of 26 teams, with the top four individuals counting towards the team score. Kassidy continued an awesome week by placing 2nd overall out of all individual judgers, only being beat by two points. She had four perfect class scores out of five, which is extremely impressive.
A special thank you to Paul Klingeman of Pure Country for the purchase of Kassidy’s lamb through the virtual market sale.
Sub-district Creed took place Wednesday, March 31, with Kassidy Wilfong competing. In total, nine students between Chelan, Cashmere, and Wenatchee participated. Although Kass did not make it to Districts, she did an amazing job, gaining experience and confidence from competing.
On April 14, Chelan hosted Districts for Extemporaneous Speaking and Creed. Amberly Guerrero, in her first active year of FFA and her first contest, gave a strong speech and placed 1st in Extemp. In this contest, the topics are very open-ended, which can result in some pretty challenging questions to address, Amberly’s confidence and knowledge shined. She will be competing at State on May 6, with the finals round on May 7.
As life is slowly returning to more of a normal feel, Chelan FFA is looking forward to our Spring Plant Sale, End of Year Banquet, and more State FFA Competitions. We also have several students who will be showing at the Spokane Junior Livestock Show May 5-8. Please see our social media pages including Facebook and Instagram for up-to-date posts.
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