FFA’s Annual Banquet
By Makinzie Parsons
Out with the old, in with the new. At this year’s annual FFA banquet we inducted our new officers and gave out many awards. First and foremost, we ate an amazing meal provided by Tinker Catering. With that, we recapped our year with a video highlighting the various events and activities our chapter participated in. The video was followed with a speech from Jay Meier, the father of our retiring president Jakob Meier. We handed out and recognized the awards for CDE’s, judging events, and LDE’s. We also recognized our proficiency winners Chance Jacobsen and Jakob Meier. The FFA Degree ceremonies followed. The following is the list of degree recipients: Discovery Degrees- Mariah Ekert, Korvin Fritz, Colbey Jensen, Zaylah Pfanstiel, Isabelle Skrdla, and Keaton Weeder. Greenhand Degrees- Kelton Anderson, Colton Fritz, Marlie Kroupa, Larissa Meier, Brody Neusch, Ritter Oestreich, Makinzie Parsons, Julia Polt, and Ayden Thelen. Chapter Degrees- Rebecca Albrecht, Garrett Meier, Abby Streff, and Mark Venteicher. State Degrees- Chance Jacobsen and Jakob Meier. The Pierce FFA Alumni and the Pierce FFA Chapter awarded scholarships to deserving members. Scholarship recipients are as follows: Alumni Scholarship- Jakob Meier. Chapter Scholarships- Chance Jacobsen and Jakob Meier. We also welcomed our new honorary FFA members; Joe Aschoff, Casey Harper, Chris Winegar, and Scott Orwig. A thank you followed to past honorary members recipients who helped us throughout the year: Haley Thayer, Kailyn Venteicher, Jay and Larrell Meier, and Sherry Kumm. This year our Aspiring Young Member was Brielle Unseld.; she participated in EDGE, had great meeting attendance and showed that she was very committed to FFA throughout the year. Mariah Ekert received the Golden Apple award for having the highest volume of sales in our annual fruit sales fundraiser . Our retiring officer team had set a very high goal at the beginning of the year to have an 80% meeting attendance. We didn’t quite reach that, but it was definitely in sight. This year we had 21 members that went to 68% of the meetings; to thank them for their commitment, we had a drawing to win $50. Brielle Unseld was the winner. Jakob Meier received Outstanding Member of the Year and $100 after earning the most points in the chapter. During the banquet, we took a quick break to play Are You Smarter Than a Pierce FFA Member? The FFA members beat the Pierce FFA alumni fair and square. We concluded with the induction of new officers; Abby Streff- President, Brett Tinker- Vice President, Larissa Meier- Secretary, Mark Venteicher- Treasurer, Makinzie Parsons- Reporter, Ayden Thelen- Sentinel, Garrett Meier- Parliamentarian, Julia Polt- Executive Committee Member. Finally, we would like to thank our alumni and all of those who helped or came to support us throughout the year.
