Sundance FFA has successful State Convention

The members of the Sundance FFA Chapter went to the Wyoming State FFA Convention held in Cheyenne, Wyoming, during the days of April 5-9. While at the convention, members competed in many different CDE and LDE competitions.

Approximately 24 members took part in the FFA activities, which varied anywhere from their respective competitions to leadership workshops, career fairs, a dance and delegate and large group meetings. These sessions taught the members about the industry they are representing, leadership, agricultural avocation and how to develop better relationships with people in the agricultural community.

Students took part in a wide variety of competitions, including junior high and high school horse evaluation, ENR, livestock judging, extemporaneous speaking, poultry evaluation, ag mechanics and veterinary science (which was held at an earlier date). All of the teams were highly competitive in their respective competitions.

The Ag Mechanics team made up of Shane Tenke, Jeral Nehl, Benjamin Miller and Dillon Haugen received ninth in their competition. As well as, the Environmental and Natural Resources (ENR) team, which consisted of Keaton Mills, Jameson Fleenor, Mathew Fligge and Parker Speidel, took fourth at the state competition.

According to Keaton Mills, the team is, "proud of their hard work and excited for what the next year will bring!"

Deanna Steele donated countless hours and supplies to coach and mentor the horse evaluation team, which consisted of Autumn Groth, Holden Ayer, Riley Banker and Savanah Peterson. Members of the team practiced after school once a week for the last few months.

When it finally came to the state competition, Autumn Groth stated the team was, "well prepared and eager to compete." When it finally came to find out the results of the competition, the team was ecstatic to discover that their hard work had paid off greatly: they received the second high team overall award!

The chapter is forever grateful to Deanna Steele and all that she has accomplished with this team and they can't wait to see how they progress for next year.

Two senior chapter members received their state degrees while they were in Cheyenne: Nate Schommer and Dawson Flahaven. These two members have shown qualities of leadership, hard work, countless hours of community service and they have also exemplified what it takes to be a positive leader and advocate for agriculture.

Overall, FFA members had an action packed, eventful and exciting State FFA Convention. Participants learned many new aspects of how the agriculture community functions as well as new agricultural based opportunities that are available to them after high school.

Students will take what they have learned from this experience and apply it to their daily lives, and their future endeavors.