The week of Valentine’s day was the week of National FFA week. To celebrate National FFA week, they have a Food for America event, a community service event and an SAE exhibition. Most FFA members have their own SAE, a Supervised Agriculture Experience (which is a job or project related to agriculture) where they will learn career skills in preparation for their bright future. They are able to bring in their projects such as animals they raise, tools from a business they work for, or machinery they use on the farm.

 It is a great way for FFA Members to show off their projects and educate elementary students about agriculture in their community. The FFA members have been doing this during FFA week for about 10 years now. One of the struggles that they had was transportation. Some of the younger FFA members were not able to drive yet and had to make arrangements for parents or family members to help them prepare and transport their animals. 

Moreover, animals and equipment are often brought on a trailer and large truck that some students are not trained to drive safely. “One example is the Firetruck that Caleb Goodloe arranged to be here so he could show students the equipment they use. He doesn’t have a CDL to drive it so he had to coordinate another volunteer, Officer Cihy, to drive it to school that morning. I always plan for more projects to be brought, knowing that a few of them will not be able to work out arrangements for transportation.” Said Mr. Meeks. I asked Mr. Meeks what his favorite part about being able to put on a zoo was, and he responded “My favorite part is seeing the elementary students interact with the farm animals. Few and fewer people live on farms these days and any connection you can help younger students make to their food sources is a great learning experience.”

By: Kaloni Krueger

Photo Credits: Wheatland FFA