Missouri FFA News Releases

COLUMBIA, Mo., April 16, 2009 – Troy FFA placed fifth 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. Troy FFA Chapter advisors are Rob Calvin, Alan Harrell, Doyle Justus and Matt McCrory.

The Troy FFA student development activities involved sending 46 members to leadership training on the state and national levels. The members attended the Leadership Adventure and Washington Leadership Conference where they learned valuable skills that were shared with each member of the chapter.

Nearly 400 FFA members were involved in the annual FFA Barnwarming. One hundred percent of the membership participated by planning, decorating, executing or cleaning up of this popular recreational activity.

Chapter development activities are designed to promote excellence within the chapter. The chapter hosted the “Let’s Play Ball” recruitment activity. Five chapter members visited with all 508 community eighth graders to promote agricultural education and the FFA. Over 325 potential FFA members then visited the agricultural science building to see for themselves if they wanted to “Play Ball” with the Troy FFA. In December the chapter delivered 4,000 cases of apples, oranges and grapefruit to local community members. Ninety-nine percent of the FFA membership participated in raising money for chapter activities on the local, state and national levels of the FFA.

Troy’s community development activities included participating in the Building Our American Communities program for the 14^th consecutive year. The BOAC Grant provided funds to improve their county fairground’s sheep barn. Troy’s FFA members, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources maintain a 156-acre wildlife area. This year the chapter conducted controlled burns, maintained 61 acres of a food plot and provided general maintenance of facilities.

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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