Illinois

JANUARY 2018

FFA NEWS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1-2- Illinois CDE Results

3- Illinois Farm Bureau

Annual Meeting

4- Illinois Foundation FFA

5-

Business and

Industry Visits

6- The Crayon Initiative

7- Call to Convention

8- Illinois FFA Alumni

Annual Meeting

9- Illinois FFA

Alumni Scholarships

UPCOMING

Events

Jan 26-27 Alumni

Annual Meeting

Champaign, IL

Feb 2-3

212 Conference- Schamburg, IL

Feb 6-7 Illinois Pork Expo

Feb 9-10

212 Conference- Collinsville, IL

Feb 18 Illinois FFA Day with

Fighting Illini

Premier Leadership. Personal Growth. Career Success.

Feb 18-24

FFA Week

Meat Evaluation Top Ten Individuals 1 Lyndon Schaffer- Prairie Central- 514 2 Evan Young-Prairie Central- 506 3 Zach Price- Iroquois West- 497 4 Trevor Plenert- Prairie Central- 488 5 Clay Zimmerman- Prairie Central- 485 6 Dylan Woodard- Seneca- 469 7 Hallie Roszak- Seneca- 468 8 Gracie Schleef- Iroquois West- 462 9 Eric Edelman- Prairie Central- 458 10 Lauren Cultra- Iroquois West- 451

Superior Teams 1 Prairie Central- 1695.5 2 Iroquois West- 1634 3 Seneca- 1524 4 Midland- 1469

Agronomy Top Ten Individuals 1 Wesley Tennant-Orion- 398 2 Mitch Wettstein- Eureka- 396 3 Seth Mitchell-Olney- 382 4 Molly Wettstein- Eureka- 382 5 Malea Cottrell- Eureka- 379 6 Kelly Gill- Princeville- 352 7 Makenna Green- Arthur-LovingtonAtwood-Hammond- 349 8 Megan Finfrock- Clinton- 347 9 Collin Martin- Princeville- 347 10 Jacob Reitz- Iroquois West- 346

Superior Teams 1 Eureka 1157 2 Olney 1056 3 Princeville 1042 4 Iroquois West 1031 5 Seneca 971 6 Orion 950 7 Prairie Central 934 8 Paxton-Buckley-Loda 927

Middle School Dairy Foods Top Five Individuals

Superior Teams

1 Morgan Lanz- Prairie Central- 179 2 Grant Holt- Clinton- 174 3 Anita Leskanich- Woodland- 170 4 Destiny Williason- Unity- 166 5 Ben Dumais- Woodland- 165

1 Prairie Central 1695.5

High School Dairy Foods Top Ten Individuals 1 Lexi Head- Central Burlington- 198 2 Ethan Slagel- Prairie Central- 198 3 Carson Robinson- Unity- 191 4 Grace Eisenmann- Prairie Central- 188 5 Elisa Dotterer- Prairie Central- 188 6 Grant Anderson- Unity- 184 7 Emily Denekas-Eastland- 184 8 Sadie Cates- Mt. Vernon- 183 9 Claire Plapp- Rochelle- 183 10 Cooper Frerichs- Milford- 182

Ag Sales

Superior Teams 1 Prairie Central 594 2 Mt. Vernon 554 3 Unity 551 4 Rochelle 551 5 Milford 549 6 Central Burlington 548 7 Eastland 543

Superior Teams 1 Prairie Central 858.5 2 Cambridge 799.5 3 Edwardsville 724 Room 3 Individuals

Room 1 Individuals 1 Mitch Bazzell-Prairie Central- 175.5 2 Trevor Huene- Edwardsville- 170 3 Riley Nelson- Cambridge- 152

Room 2 Individuals

1 Austin Reed- Cambridge- 183 2 Rachel McGreal- Prairie Central- 166 3 Austin Potter- Paxton-Buckley-Loda- 160

Room 4 Individuals

1 Tanner Hartman- Prairie Central- 182 2 Sierra Brown- Cambridge- 164.5 3 Tanner Allen- Midwest Central- 162

Thanks to our hosts:

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Parkland College Champaign

1 Jeremy Steffen- Prairie Central- 190 2 Tanner Coziahr- Cambridge- 182 3 Monique Garrett- Edwardsville- 176.5

Illinois Farm Bureau Annual Meeting The Majors started out December traveling to the Illinois Farm Bureau Annual Meeting at the Palmer House Chicago. Festivities began on Friday night when the Majors attended dinner with the Member Services and Public Relations Department (MSPR) of Farm Bureau and 4-H Youth Reps. While at dinner, the Majors learned about the pivotal role that MSPR, member services, and public relations role in helping the convention running smoothly. The Majors had several responsibilities throughout the Farm Bureau Annual Meeting. At each session, the majors and 4-H youth reps would carry in the flags. During the first session, Illinois FFA President, Joey Birrittier, gave a welcome speech to the members of Farm Bureau. During the Farm Bureau meeting, the officers attended sessions and networked with members of the Farm Bureau from all over the state. The Majors also served as ringmen for the auction for the Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom. The remainder of the weekend was filled with sessions containing individual award recognition, county awards, and keynote speakers. On behalf of Illinois FFA, I would like to thank the Illinois Farm Bureau for inviting us to the Annual Meeting, the 4-H Representatives who helped us represent the next generation of agriculture, and the Farm Bureau members who made us feel welcome anywhere we went. Thank you all for an experience that we will never forget. -Rob Janssen

ILLINOIS FOUNDATION FFA When constructing a building, you must have a solid foundation in order to create a sound structure. This is similar in Illinois FFA. In order to provide our students with opportunities and experiences, we must have a strong foundation that we can build off of. Illinois Foundation FFA has been providing funds to the Illinois FFA since 1947. Illinois Foundation FFA supports many FFA events including; FFA Leadership Camp, State FFA Convention, State FFA Officer Travel Expenses and Training, as well as, awards and plaques for state winners. Even though the Foundation has evolved over time since inception, it still serves the main purpose and ideals that it was created upon. The cornerstone of those ideals is to provide support to Illinois Association FFA to make a positive impact in the lives of students so they can develop premier leadership, personal growth, and career success. Each year, the Illinois FFA Foundation hosts a collection drive in order to raise those dollars that are put toward supporting chapters across the state. Each and every donation is utilized to impact the future of Illinois Agriculture. Through the help of agriculture industry donors, past FFA members, parents, grandparents, friends of Illinois FFA and business partners the opportunities that these funds provide to students are endless. Contact the Illinois FFA Center to learn how you can impact FFA members experiences with your donation or make an online donation at www.illinoisffafoundation.org/donate.

-Ryan Reeverts

Business and Industry Visits January 8-12th, 2018, the Major State Officer team and Communications Specialist, Katie Burns visited many different agricultural companies throughout the state of Illinois. The first of these networking moments were captured in Southern Illinois at The Maschhoffs, a family owned swine confinement corporation. While visiting their headquarters in Carlyle, the officer team had the opportunity to meet and talk with employees and owner Ken Maschhoff himself. The Maschhoffs are the fourth largest hog producer in the United States and the ninth largest producer in the world. That’s a lot of bacon! From the Maschhoffs we traveled to Monsanto, in Chesterfield, Missouri. There the team was taken on a tour of the Monsanto Research Center. The tour included walking through some of their facilities and greenhouses. From the research center, the team made their way to Monsanto Company World Headquarters in Creve Coeur, Missouri. There the State Officers meet with the Monsanto FFA Alumni Affiliation and discussed career opportunities. Halfway through the week, the Major State Officers headed north to John Deere Harvester Works. While at Harvester Works the team was given a tour of the facilities and witnessed how a John Deere combine is manufactured from start to finish. By Thursday, the State Officers found themselves in Galesburg, Illinois at Thrushwood Farms Quality Meats Incorporated. Thrushwood Farms gave the officers a tour of their facilities where they produce award-winning products such as hams, hot dogs, bacon, jerky, and snack sticks. The final snapshots of the week were taken at Caterpillar in Peoria. At this final visit, the Major State Officers toured the manufacturing center, research and development facility, and the Caterpillar museum. Amidst the virtual reality experience and thirteen-foot tires, the officers also had the opportunity to meet with some of Caterpillars industry leaders and FFA Alumni. We would like to thank all of the companies that allowed us to visit them this week while on our business and industry tours. Your support of the FFA is what allows us to develop premier leadership, personal growth, and career success. -Dalton Painter

"Living to Serve", the fourth line of the FFA motto embodies what we as Illinois FFA strive to achieve. Every year during our State FFA Convention Illinois FFA organizes a service project opportunity for our members to participate in. This year we have a unique opportunity to partner with an amazing organization called the Crayon Initiative. The Crayon Initiative is a project where unwanted crayons are recycled and then turned into new crayons that will be donated to children’s hospitals around the nation. The Crayon Initiative collects used and unwanted crayons, melt them down, and re-manufacture them, reducing environmental waste. Donated crayons that are turned into new crayons will allow children going through tough times an outlet for creative expression. We are excited to be a part of an amazing opportunity to affect the lives of children across the United States. How can you help? Start by collecting used and unwanted crayons from your homes, classrooms, and schools. Work with your local elementary and junior high schools at the end of the school year to help collect the most crayons possible. Our goal as a state is to collect over 2,000 pounds of crayons, and this is only possible with the help of Illinois FFA Members. Once you have collected all the crayons that you possibly can, bring them to the Illinois State Convention June 12-14 and deposit them into the collection bins which will be located in the convention hall. Join us and take pride in this statewide service project because as FFA members and supporters we must live by our FFA motto and Live to Serve. -Chase Clausen

147 Days Until the best 3 days of the Year WHAT’S UP ILLINOIS FFA! In the words of the immortal holiday carol, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!” What I am referring to, of course, is the announcement and start of FFA Convention season! This is the first official invitation for all 17,500 blue jacket ambassadors of Illinois FFA to come and attend the 90th State FFA Convention. Rob, Ryan, Dalton, Chase and I are putting in countless hours to make this year’s convention BOLD for the thousands of members and guest present at the Bank of Springfield Center this June. Get ready for three days packed full of energy and enthusiasm as we praise and applaud thousands of FFA chapters, their members, and their BOLD accomplishments this past year. The 90th Illinois FFA Convention will be held June 12-14; and include six jam pact sessions. Some of the highlights include a keynote speech by National Southern Region Vice-President Ian Bennett, retiring addresses by all five of your major state officers, and the elections of your 2018-2019 Illinois FFA State Officer team. So get ready and be sure to attend all six of our BOLD general sessions. The general sessions will have a theme based on the five core values we created as a team. The five core values include positivity, patience, service, humility, and dedication. The sixth session theme is Proud to Be Bold in the Blue and Gold, where we honor FFA members with awards given by Illinois Farm Bureau. Along with these six sessions, there will be two very important business sessions that we encourage all chapters to participate. The first business session will be the approval of committee reports, the Illinois State Degree approval process, and other important business items. The second business session will be the voting and elections of the 2018-2019 Illinois FFA Major State Officers. FFA members will have ample opportunities to promote and broadcast the events held at the 90th Illinois FFA Convention. Be sure to use #BeBold and #ILFFA whenever you post on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Also be sure to post as many Snapchat selfies as you can with the IL FFA Snapchat filter. Last year we reached almost 100,000 people with all of our media work. I challenge all of the 17,500 FFA members to surpass this number and reach 120,000 people on all social media platforms. Along with these sessions, members have the plethora of opportunities to better themselves as FFA members. These workshops will be hosted by many friends of Illinois FFA, from other state associations to industry leaders. The workshop opportunities will be posted closer to the convention. On behalf of the 30 members of the Illinois FFA State Officer Team, and all the staff of the Illinois FFA Center, we look forward to seeing all of you BOLD FFA members at the 90th Annual Illinois FFA Convention. -Joey Birrittier

The Illinois FFA Alumni will be hosting their Annual Meeting and Scholarship Auction on Friday, January 26, 2018, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign, Illinois. The money raised at the auction will go toward the leadership conference scholarships that the Alumni award to deserving Illinois FFA Members. This event is open to anyone who would like to support leadership opportunities for Illinois FFA Members. Auction items will be posted on the FFA Alumni Facebook page leading up to the meeting. Check out a few of the items that are already secured for the auction below!

7 Nights luxury Caribbean resort accommodations for up to two rooms at The Club Barbados Resort and Spa.This relaxing all-inclusive resort is nestled amongst five acres and offers panoramic views of the Caribbean Sea. Winner responsible for airfare and all-inclusive supplement which provides for all dining, beverages, resort activities, taxes, and service charge. ($125 per person / per night). Total Value: $3,000

4 complimentary One-Day Park Hopper tickets to Walt Disney World Total Value: $648

DoubleTree Collinsville, IL:One night stay room, breakfast for 2, $50 towards entrée at Porters Steakhouse Value: $200

One night stay, Jumers Hotel and Casino-two free buffets in Rock Island. Value: $200

Ticket Vouchers to various Cardinals Games throughout the season. Value: $50/each

Illinois FFA Alumni Scholarships by the numbers Over the last forty years, the Illinois FFA Alumni has awarded 1,603 scholarships to deserving Illinois FFA members. How can you get an Alumni Scholarship? The next Alumni Scholarship that is available is for Illinois FFA Leadership Camp. It is due March 1st. Make sure to watch the Illinois FFA Alumni Facebook page for more information on how to apply!

EDGE Conference

212 Conference 

2000-2006

38 Scholarships

469 Scholarships

$7,600

$16,495

Washington Leadership Conference

Illinois FFA Leadership Camp

566 Scholarships

461 Scholarships

 $170,845 

$64,335 

FFA Leadership CampChapter Basket Program 69 Scholarships $14,450

Total Scholarships Awarded: 

1,603

Total Amount Awarded:

$273,725