Missouri FFA News Releases

COLUMBIA, Mo., April 16, 2009 – Aurora FFA placed eighth out of 317 chapters in the state, earning a Top Chapter Award at the 81^st Missouri FFA Convention. Only 10 percent of state chapters receive the Top Chapter Award each year.

Chapter activity awards, sponsored by FCS Financial, are given to chapters achieving excellence in student, chapter and community development. Aurora FFA Chapter advisors are Jim Spencer, Jr. and Craig Grisham.

The Aurora FFA student development activities included premier leadership development. During the leadership training students received training from past and current state and national officers. Students participated in Supervised Agricultural Experience training. At the beginning of the school year outstanding SAE projects are selected and presented to the freshman class. This helped students gain knowledge and ideas about their future SAE project.

Chapter development activities are designed to promote excellence within the chapter. The Aurora FFA Chapter has developed "Mission Inform," a website designed to increase communication between members and the public. The overall goal of this activity is to assure the public is informed of chapter activities, membership accomplishments, scheduled events, and links to other agricultural organizations.

Aurora’s community development activities included “Lend a Hand.” This program increased the community awareness of those in need, and the chapter became aware of how they could make a difference. During this event, members mentored 40 early childhood students to build trust and self esteem by taking them fishing for an afternoon. The student body raised 100 percent of the funds needed to provide holiday hams for 55 local families who could afford holiday meals.

The top chapters are submitted to the National FFA Organization where they compete for the National FFA Chapter Award. The competition will be this fall at the National FFA convention in Indianapolis, Ind.

The Missouri FFA has 24,410 members representing 317 chapters. The national organization has over 507,000 members representing 7,439 local chapters in 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

The FFA Mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.

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