Decorating the Town

Every year the Doniphan West FFA Chapter offers a helping hand in preparing our town for the holiday season. The Nursery/Landscape and Ag Communication classes gathered greenery and poinsettias to fill flower planters up and down Main Street. Member Kassiday Blevins states, "Being able to add some cheerful color and Christmas Spirit to the Highland community not only makes yourself feel better, but brings a smile to others" about her experience. Other FFA members decorated Degginger Park for the winter season by hanging snowflake lights from the trees to create their own winter wonderland.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!

Fruit and Meat Sales

 The Doniphan West Chapter just completed their annual Fruit and Meat sales.  Once the orders were collected and paid for the fruit and meat was shipped to the high school. Members had to collect their own fruit and mix the boxes to fit the orders they have for their customers. The meat sticks needed sorting and collecting as well as all other meat products.  Each member was in charge of delivering their orders to the customers. Another successful fundraiser completed. The money raised is used to help pay for competitions and events for the rest of the year.

Barnwarming

Seniors Brook Fee and Ben Petrik were named the 2011 Doniphan West FFA Barnwarming Sweetheart and Beau on Nov. 21. Other candidates were freshmen Leah Johnson and Jeffrey Watts, sophomores Meghan Larson and Adam Wilmes, and juniors Clarissa Billups and Luke Twombly. Sweetheart and beau candidates participated in an interview, took an FFA information test, and competed in a series of chores in front of an audience of over 100 guests. The winners were announced at the conclusion of the chapter’s Barnwarming festivities which included a meal and FFA member work auction.

Barnwarming - November 21

It's almost here!

Barnwarming 2011 will be on Monday,  November 21 at 6:00 p.m. A BBQ pork meal will be served in the high school commons area with the Barnwarming festivities to follow in the Agriculture Shop.

Hope to see you there!

Leadership School Results

Northeast District Leadership School Results
     11/10/11 at Holton


Senior Division
Senior Team
 Overall - 3rd Place
 Parliamentary Procedure Team - 3rd Place
 Ritual Team - 3rd Place
 FFA Team Information - 2nd Place
Senior Indiviual
 Parlaw Information Test
   Aaron Halling - 6th Place
 Mater Ritual
   Treasurer- BreAnne Caudle
 FFA Information Test
   Maggie Johnson - 2nd Place
   Aisha Diveley - 7th Place

Greenhands
Greenhand A Team
 Overall - 3rd Place
 Parlaw - 3rd Place
 Rituals - 8th Place
 FFA Information - 2nd
A Team Individuals
 FFA Information Test
   Regan Gibson - 3rd Place
   Tyhan Bollinger - 8th Place
   Brandon Caudle - 10th Place
Greenhand B Team
 Rituals - 6th Place

In memory of John Burke

It is with great sorrow that the Doniphan West FFA Chapter says good-bye to a former FFA member. John Burke lost his life in the Bartlett Grain explosion in Atchison, Kan., on Oct. 29. Prior to the Doniphan West consolidation, John attended Midway Schools. He graduated from Doniphan West in 2006. While he was an FFA member, John received his State FFA Degree and placed 7th at the Kansas FFA Career Development Events in entomology. May God bless John and his family in this difficult time.

Click here to read John's obituary.

Happy Halloween!

Doniphan West FFA members celebrated Halloween with pumpkin carving, chili, a movie and a hayrack ride on Oct. 30. The winning pumpkin carving belonged to Aisha Diveley and Meghan Larson. Check out the pictures from the activity.

We Are FFA - 84th National FFA Convention



Ten members of the Doniphan West FFA Chapter took the 523 mile journey to the 84th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Ind., this past week. Members kicked off convention on Wednesday at the Agricultural Career Show where they had a chance to speak with college representatives and industry professionals. Later in the day, they attended the Opening Session in Conseco Fieldhouse to listen to national officers speak, watch chapters and members from across the nation receive awards and hear motivational speaker, Dave Roever talk about his time in Vietnam. After the Opening Session five members attended the National Chapter Award Banquet for chapters receiving the 3-Star ranking in the National Chapter Award program. To wrap-up Wednesday, members went to a haunted house for a some exciting and spooky entertainment.

On Thursday, the members attended a workshop that focused on being a part of your community. They then attended the Second General Session where members watched the National FFA Organization recognize Native Americans in agriculture and FFA and watched the Central Region Vice President, Wyatt DeJong give his retiring address. At this session Doniphan West was also recognized as a 3-Star chapter. At the conclusion of the session, our chapter went to eat at Joe's Crab Shack with members from the Seaman FFA Chapter and then went to Lucas Oil Stadium to watch Blake Shelton, with Steel Magnolia and Little Big Town in concert.

Doniphan West packed up and headed back to Kansas on Friday morning. On the way back, we stopped at the English Buffalo Ranch where members learned about the animals and had a chance to eat a Buffalo Burger.

Despite some rainy, cold and windy weather in Indianapolis, the trip was a great success and we can't wait to go back next year!

Doniphan County Ag Day

Students from the Doniphan West FFA teamed up with Doniphan County K-State Research and Extension to teach elementary students from across the county about livestock. FFA members let them feed and pet calves, a dairy cow, a pony, a horse and a llama. They also taught them a few tidbits of information about the animals.

Fall CDE Day

Wednesday September 28th our FFA Chapter traveled to Holton for the Fall CDE Day. We took a nursery and landscape team as well as an entomology team. The results for team scores for the day was our Nursery/landscape A team getting first place, Nursery/landscape B team getting 2nd, and both A and B teams for Entomology getting 3rd place. Individual scores include

Nursery/landscape A Team
-1st Maggie Johnson
-2nd Laura Rush
-3rd Katrina Miller
-4th Tyler Diveley
-5th Mason Rush
-6th Kassiday Blevins
-7th Dylan Wood

Nursery/landscape B Team
-2nd BreAnne Caudle
-3rd Aisha Diveley
-6th Jessica Neibling
-7th Julie Vonderschmidt
-8th Brielle Clary
-9th Meghan Larson
-10th Abby Fee

Entomology A Team
-2nd Dylan Wood
-7th Aaron Halling

Entomology B Team
-6th Ian Bollinger
-9th Adam Wilmes

Congratulations to everyone! Keep up the good work! :) :)

FFA Tailgate

Doniphan West FFA held a tailgate on September 9 at a home football game against Riverside. We served grilled hamburgers, homemade fries, beans, drinks and cookies.

We also had a spin the wheel raffle. Patrons could buy a ticket for a dollar and if their name was drawn they got to spin the prize wheel. Prizes ranged from a coat donated by Highland Hardware, a free haircut a Hair Fanatics, gift cards to Highland Convenience, candy,pop, and cookies.

Despite several rain delays we had a successful tailgate!

September 12 Chapter Meeting Minutes

Date: September 12th, 2011

Location: High School Gym

Start Time: 3:00

Presiding Officer: President Aaron Halling

I. Opening Ceremonies

II. Officer Reports
a. Reporter- Laura Rush
i. Check out blog
ii. Add a positive comment and you get candy as a reward!
b. Treasurer- BreAnne Caudle
i. $682 earned at tailgate
ii. New chapter balance of $5,695
c. Secretary- Maggie Johnson
i. Hand out student information sheets
d. Student Advisor- Derek Gibson
i. T-shirts and Hoodie sign-up
1. T-shirts $12.25
2. Hoodies $32
e. Vice President- Aisha Diveley
i. POA announcements
1. Committee sign-ups
III. No Committee Reports
IV. No Old Business
V. No New Business
VI. No Presentations
VII. No Announcements
VIII. Activity
a. FFA Trivia
IX. Luke Rush moved to adjourn meeting, BreAnne Caudle seconds, and Aaron Halling adjourns

State Convention

Doniphan West had 18 members attend the 83rd Kansas State FFA Convention in Manhattan, Kan., June 1-4.

D-West saw a lot of stage time during convention. Here are the highlights:

-11th Overall Chapter in the Triple Crown National Chapter Award

-3rd in Chapter Development

-Gold in Student Development

-Silver in Community Development

-Nick Johnson, Katherine Rush, Kayla Schmitz and Brennan Davis were all proficiency award winners

-Keaton Blevins and Katherine Rush were also recognized as star finalists in Placement and Agribusiness, respectively

-Keaton Blevins, Katherine Rush, Stephanie Scales, Ben Petrik, Austin Veach and Tanner Veach received their state degrees

-Aisha Diveley sang in the State FFA Chorus

Overall, we had a pretty good year!

State CDE's

When asked how excited they were about the State Career Development Events at K-State, the Dairy Foods team consisting of Gabby Speer, BreAnne Caudle, Josh Van Laar and Aisha Diveley responded with this gesture...

Doniphan West took teams in Floriculture, Nursery/Landscape, Ag Communications, Ag Mechanics, Dairy Foods, Poultry, Livestock Judging and Food Science. Although no members broke the top 10, they represented Doniphan West very well. Top individuals on each team from our chapter were:

Floriculture - Katherine Rush

Nursery/Landscape - Keaton Blevins

Ag Communications - Aisha Diveley

Ag Mechanics - Keaton Blevins

Dairy Foods - Josh Van Laar

Poultry - Tanner Veach

Livestock Judging - Luke Rush

Food Science - Maggie Johnson

Chapter Banquet

The 60th Anniversary of FFA in Highland was held in conjunction with the Doniphan West Chapter Banquet on April 18. Over 210 FFA members, family and guests were present at the celebration. Among the guests were four founding members of the Highland FFA. Highlights of the night included the reciting of new and old versions of the creed by Samantha Albers, Luke Rush and Jack Dorrell, one of the founding members. John Gladhart, 1960, and Kole McCauley, 2006, spoke about their experiences in agriculture and FFA. Mr. Schmitz unveiled the new Highland-Doniphan West Wall of Achievement. The large plaque will be placed in the entrance of the agriculture building and will include all members that have received their state and american degrees, state star winners, state officers and district officers from Highland and Doniphan West.

Along with the recognition of the former FFA members, several awards were presented to current FFA members. Those awards are listed below.

Greenhand Degree - Samantha Albers, Ian Bollinger, Brielle Clary, Liz Courtin, Allen Dorrell, Megan Green, Trevor Kaufman, Meghan Larson, Payton Leach, Jessica Neibling, Luke Rush, Katie Smith, Madison Smith, Julie Vonderschmidt, James Walls, Adam Wilmes, Jessica Wood, Paige Ellis

Chapter Degree - Clarissa Billups, Kassiday Blevins, BreAnne Caudle, Jordan Cluck, Aisha Diveley, Abby Fee, Derek Gibson, Derrick Hughes, Aaron Johnson, Maggie Johnson, Maddi Libel, Laura Rush, Koby Scholz, Jordan Sellers, Gabby Speer, Luke Twombly, Chris Tygret, Jacob Wiedner, Michelle Johnson, Jessica Pickman

Most Active Members - Valerie Neibling, Jessica Neibling, Aisha Diveley, Tyler Diveley, Robyn Boos

Four Year Membership - Travis Arnold, Robyn Boos, Keaton Blevins, Dillan Colborn, Ashley Courtin, Katie Crandall, Mackenzie Cunningham, Taryn Gibson, Nick Johnson, Rachel Keller, Katherine Rush, Josh Van Laar, Tanner Veach

State Degrees - Keaton Blevins, Ben Petrik, Katherine Rush, Stephanie Scales, Austin Veach, Tanner Veach

Proficiency Awards - Keaton Blevins, Katie Crandall, Lacie Diveley, Tyler Diveley, Brook Fee, Maggie Johnson, Nick Johnson, Ben Petrik, Katherine Rush, Laura Rush, Stephanie Scales

FFA Alumni Scholarship - Katherine Rush

Bud Colley Scholarship - Keaton Blevins

Honorary Degrees - Ed Webb, Chris Lackey

Scholarship Achievement - Alaine Caudle

Star Greenhand - Luke Rush

Chapter Star in Agribusiness - Katherine Rush

Chapter Star in Ag Placement - Keaton Blevins

Officer Installation

President - Aaron Halling

Vice President - Aisha Diveley

Secretary - Maggie Johnson

Treasurer - BreAnne Caudle

Reporter - Laura Rush

Sentinel - Ian Bollinger

Student Advisor - Derek Gibson

VP Community - Ben Petrik

VP Chapter - Luke Rush

VP Student - Meghan Larson

Chapter Banquet - 60th Anniversary

All former Highland-Doniphan West FFA members are invited to the 60th Anniversary of FFA in Highland. The annivesary will be celebrated in conjunction with the Doniphan West Chapter Banquet. The meal will start at 6:30, with the banquet to follow. For more information, contact Elmer Schmitz or KaCee Thompson at the high school.

Local FFA Chapter Plant Sales

The Doniphan West High School FFA Chapter is having their annual plant sales on:

Saturday, April 16 from 7am -11am.

Thursday, April 21 from 8am-3:30pm.

Saturday, April 23 from 7am-11am.

Saturday, April 30 from 7am-11am.

Here are some of the plants that are up for sale:

Prices are:

Tomatoes-single $0.50

4-pack $1.50

6-pack $2.00

Flat $12.oo

Bedding Plants-Single $0.50

6-pack $2.00

Hanging Baskets-Flowering $14.00

Foliage $12.00

Geranium Pots- $2.00

Large Geranium Containers- $35.00

Please come support your local FFA Chapter to raise money for FFA trips such as State and National Conventions.

Spring CDE Results

District Livestock Judging, March 30

Top Performers - Luke Rush, Samantha Albers, Ian Bollinger

Fort Scott Aggie Days, April 1

Floriculture - Katherine Rush, 5th; Ashley Courtin, 20th; Team #1, 7th.

Dairy Foods - Josh Van Laar

District Super CDE Day, April 6

Ag Communications -

A-Team (1st overall) - Katherine Rush, 2nd (press release); Mackenzie Cunningham, 5th (broadcast), Stephanie Scales, 6th (graphic design), Valerie Neibling, 7th (news writing)

B-Team (1st overall) - BreAnne Caudle, 1st (press release), Gabby Speer, 3rd (graphic design), Kassiday Blevins, 4th (news writing), Aisha Diveley, 5th (broadcast)

Dairy Foods -

A-Team (6th overall) - Aisha Diveley, 2nd

Food Science-

A-Team - Emma-Leigh Herrs, 11th

B-Team - Maggie Johnson, 4th; Jessica Neibling, Luke Rush

Floriculture -

A- Team (1st overall) - Katherine Rush, 1st; Keaton Blevins, 2nd; Rachel Keller, 5th; Ashley Courtin, 6th; Taryn Gibson, 7th; Stephanie Scales, 9th; Nick Johnson, 10th

B- Team (1st overall) - Rachel Rush, 1st; Kassiday Blevins, 2nd; Laura Rush, 3rd; Michelle Johnson, 4th; Jessica Pickman, 5th; Katrina Miller, 6th; Dylan Wood, 7th; Jessica Neibling, 9th; Maggie Johnson, 10th

State Proficiency Award Winners

Four students of the Doniphan West FFA Chapter were named Kansas state proficiency award winners. The proficiency awards recognize students' Supervised Agricultural Experience programs. Their applications will now advance on to be judged at the national level.


Brennan Davis - Ag Services
Kayla Schmitz - Diversified Horticulture
Nick Johnson - Forestry Management and Products
Katherine Rush - Vegetable Production

Please congratulate these students if you see them!

Why Robin Thinks You Should Join FFA

On Tuesday, March 8, a select few FFA members went to the Doniphan West Middle School for 8th grade recruitment. For the activity, 8th graders went through four different Career Development Event stations. The stations were:

1. Food Science - students did the triangle test with Cheeze-Its and Soda


2. FFA Information - students answered questions in FFA Jeopardy for prizes


3. Startburst Judging - students placed a "class" of starbursts on placing cards and listened to a set of reasons


4. Horticulture - students learned about cuttings and transplanting, as well as Floriculture ID.

It's important to us and the future of our FFA chapter to get as many members as possible. So here are some reasons why you should join our FFA chapter.

• A great opportunity to meets tons of new people
• It's fun!
• Get to go to National Convention (if you work hard enough)
• Any member can go to state convention in Manhattan, Kansas
• Cool awards
• Gain responsibility
• Learn leadership
• You can get out of school :)
• Awesome ag teachers
• All the different CDE's (contests) you can participate in

FFA isn't just about farming, FFA teaches many things and it is a blast. There are many cool Ag classes available at Doniphan West. Just click on the Doniphan West Agricultural Education link (under Pages here to the right) to view them.

Parents, if you have kids that are going to be in high school next year, definitely encourage them to be in FFA!

Students, some of my most memorable things that happened in high school involved FFA! You won't regret it!

Second Grade Plant Visit

FFA members recently hosted 2nd graders from Mrs. Merkel and Mrs. Dixon's classes to teach them about plants. The 2nd graders were divided into four groups and visited different stations. The high school students were in charge of the four stations - Planting and Cuttings, Soybeans, Parts of a Plant, and Decorating.

At the Planting and Cutting station, Ashley Courtin, Laura Rush, Lacie Diveley and Valerie Neibling taught the kids how to take a cutting from a Wandering Jew and plant it in a cup. They also planted a soybean seed in a cup. The kids got to take home their Wandering Jews, while the high school students will moniter the growth of the soybeans in the greenhouse.

Nick and Maggie Johnson talked to the kids about the many uses of Soybeans at the next station. They also told them about the process of planting and harvesting soybeans.

The kids learned about the basic parts of a plant including the roots, stem, leaves and petals. They wrote the parts down on a coloring sheet that they got to take to their classroom to color. Katie Crandall and Rachel Keller also talked to them about photosynthesis and pollination.

Finally at the decorating station, the 2nd graders were able to decorate their Wandering Jew cup. Taryn Gibson, Stephanie Scales and Katherine Rush also taught them about floral design at this station.

Doniphan West District Stars

Keaton Blevins and Katherine Rush were named the Northeast District Stars in Ag Placement and Agribusiness, respectively.

The announcement was made after Keaton and Katherine competed in a round of interviews on March 7. The interviews consisted of questions about the students' Supervised Agricultural Experience programs. Keaton and Katherine will advance to the state level from here. They will be recognized at the Northeast District FFA Banquet on April 25 at Rock Creek High School. The state winners will be announced in the final session at the Kansas FFA State Convention in Manhattan on June 3.

Keaton and Katherine are pictured below working for their SAE programs. Keaton's SAE is Diversified Agricultural Production and Katherine's SAE is Vegetable Production.

Selection Day

Doniphan West FFA has several reasons to be proud of its students after the 2011 Selection Day. On March 2, six members from Doniphan West received their State FFA Degrees, while five members won proficiency awards.

Keaton Blevins and Katherine Rush were named district finalists for Star in Placement and Star in Agribusiness, respectively. They will continue the District Star process by interviewing on March 7. The district winners will be announced then. Meanwhile, Laura Rush was named the Northeast District Star Greenhand in Agribusiness for her work in vegetable and fruit production.

Members that received their state degrees were Keaton Blevins, Ben Petrik, Katherine Rush, Stephanie Scales, Austin Veach and Tanner Veach. To receive the state degree an FFA member must productively earn and invest at least $2000 or work a minimum of 600 hours in their Supervised Agricultural Experience program.

The proficiency award winners were:

Brennan Davis - Ag Services, Ag Mechanics Repair and Maintenance
Nick Johnson - Forestry Management
Katherine Rush - Vegetable Production
Stephanie Scales - Specialty Animal Production
Kayla Schmitz - Diversified Horticulture

Tyler Diveley was the runner-up in Dairy Production Placement and Ben Petrik ranked 3rd in Home and/or Community Development.

Students that won their proficiency area will be recognized at the Northeast District Banquet on April 25. Their applications will advance to the state level which will be judged on March 19.

Our Year, So Far

This year has been a very fun and successful year for the Doniphan West FFA Chapter. In case you've missed our previous blog posts, here is a list of what we've done so far:

1. We kicked off our events with an officer retreat. For this officer retreat, we went camping and canoeing. While on our retreat we worked on the Program of Activities (POA) for the upcoming year.
2. After school started our first big event was our FFA Tailgate fundraiser on Sept. 17. We also received a generous grant for $2,000 from Monsanto.
3. Greenhand Conference was the first competition of the year. At Greenhand Conference freshmen compete in the FFA Information Test and participate in workshops to teach them about FFA.
4. The next big event was National Convention! This is the highlight of theyear for many of the FFA members. This year, officers and Greenhand winners traveled to the big city of Indianapolis and participated in the many fun events such as the Career Show, workshops and sessions.
5. Barnwarming is our chapter's other big fundraiser that took place in November. We host a meal for our community then move on to the Chores. A boy and girl were selected from each class to compete in the chores and FFA test. Seniors Nick Johnson and Mackenzie Cunningham were named our Beau and Sweetheart.
6. Fruit sales rounded out our very busy semester. This year, we also started selling meat and cookie dough.

Throughout the year our members have also participated in many different Career Development Events and we have done very well, with members placing at every event.

Our year has been successful so far and we hope to continue that success the rest of the year.

FFA Scholarship

New this year from the Doniphan West FFA Alumni Chapter is the Alumni Scholarship. This scholarship will be offered to all seniors that have been involved in FFA for at least three years. The scholarship is worth $250 towards the recipients school of choice. The scholarship is good for any technical school, two year school, or a four year college. All seniors that are interested in applying for the scholarship must have the completed application form, from the website, turned into an advisor by April 1st.

-K. Blevins

Floriculture Class

Valentine's Day Floral Designs by the Floriculture class.

FFA Week Kick-Off Bowling

Twelve members of the Doniphan West FFA Chapter kicked off National FFA Week with a bowling party at Belt Bowl in St. Joe on Saturday, February 19.

Members that attended were Robyn Boos, Alaine Caudle, Dillon Colborn, Steven Simmons, Josh Van Laar, Tyler Diveley, Ben Petrik, Aisha Diveley, Brielle Clary, Allen Dorrell, Jessica Neibling and Luke Rush.

Highlights of the night included bowling multiple games and even a "Trick Bowl Only" game.

District Meats

Whether it's beef, pork or lamb, we can judge it. The Northeast District Meats Evaluation Career Development Event was held February 10 at Easton. Keaton Blevins, placed 5th overall in the A-Team division with a score of 574. BreAnne Caudle, Aisha Diveley and Brook Fee made up the B-Team and placed 6th.



In this CDE members must evaluate carcasses based on yield and quality grade. They must also place carcasses or various cuts of meat, as well as identify retail cuts. Skills like this are used everyday in the animal and food industry. The yield and quality grade of meat are the driving factors for demand, which ultimately defines the price consumers will pay.

- Aisha Diveley, Reporter




**In the picture - FFA members work at placing a class of Beef Loins. This class is judged on the quality of the loin. You can determine the quality of a cut of meat by looking at the marbling, or intramuscular fat found within the loin eye.

Save the Date!

The year 2011 marks the 60th Anniversary of the Highland/Doniphan West FFA Chapter.

To honor this milestone, a celebration will be held in conjunction with the Doniphan West FFA chapter banquet on Monday, April 18. More information will be posted as it becomes available for this event.

If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Schmitz, Miss Thompson, or an alumni chapter member.

Alumni Meeting

The Doniphan West FFA Alumni meeting has be rescheduled for Monday, January 17 at 7:00 p.m. in the DWHS Agricultural Education building.