The Wakefield Republican -

The 27 high school students and 15 Junior High students at Allen Public Schools worked together this past week to celebrate National FFA Week from Monday, Feb. 19 through Friday, Feb. 23.
The Allen FFA Chapter Sentinel Dylan Boyle and his three committee helpers of Aceson Graves, Landon Monteith, and June Ridenour made the executive decisions on how the chapter should celebrate the coveted week, keeping in mind the involvement of the elementary students and members of the community.
On Monday, Feb. 19, the week kicked off with the simple-yet-fun theme of “Hat Day”, where all students were encouraged to wear their favorite hats to school.
Tuesday gave students the opportunity to show off their hopes and dreams with “Career Day”. All students were encouraged to dress like what they wanted their future careers to be. Whether that be a doctor, farmer, or football star.
Wednesday was the pinnacle of the week, with the day beginning with a Farmer Appreciation Breakfast form 7:00 a.m. through 8:00 a.m. Members of the community, teachers, staff, local business and families were all invited to celebrate FFA with a free breakfast cooked and prepared by members of the Allen FFA Chapter and the school kitchen staff.
Following their appreciation breakfast, students had the opportunity to participate in “All-American Day” by wearing their best Americana duds throughout the school day.
Students were once again given the opportunity to show off what they hoped to come out of their future on Thursday, Feb. 22 with “College Day”. During “College Day”, students were told to wear some college gear throughout the school day. Students could wear apparel from the college they plan on attending in the future, their favorite college in the nation, or just any old college gear their parents may have had lying around the house.
The week of celebration came to an end on Friday, Feb. 23 with a “Wear Blue Day”. Students were encouraged to wear blue to classes while FFA members were asked to wear their official dress to school to remind everyone what the week was really about.
Throughout the week, Ag Trivia was played during the high school lunch hour, which gave students the opportunity to show off their agricultural knowledge and win some cool prizes.
Elementary students got to join in the on the fun as well, with a coloring contest running throughout the week up until Thursday.
With so many fun activities happening throughout the week, it seems nearly impossible to pick just one to be the favorite. But Allen FFA Advisor Amber Horton did her best to narrow it down to just one.
“My favorite part had to be the Farmer’s Breakfast we held on Wednesday morning,” she said. “The FFA members did the cooking with a little help from our school kitchen staff. It was a great meal, and we had a pretty good turnout compared to previous years.”
To go along with her own personal favorite, there also seemed to be a favorite among the students in her eyes.
“The students loved doing the FFA trivia questions during lunch time,” Horton said. “They get prizes for having the fastest correct answer, you could tell they just had a blast.”
While the Allen FFA Chapter is doing well as far as numbers go, there’s always room for more students, and Horton is hoping their celebrations this week could pull in more students in the upcoming years.
“FFA has something for everyone,” she said. “You don’t have to live on a farm or even be interested in farming to learn and gain valuable career skills from the FFA organization. From public speaking to livestock evaluation, there is a contest or event for every interest area that is sure to challenge students and be fun at the same time.”
Throughout the years, FFA has offered students ways to meet new people, travel to new places, and gain many different skills to help them in their future careers. These reasons, and more, are why Horton thinks it’s so important for students to give the organization a try, even if they’re not interested in farming.
“I truly think the best part about FFA is the carer skills learned along the way,” Horton said. “I hear many past students say they would have never tried something or ended up where they are if it wasn’t for FFA. When students get involved in FFA, they’re pushed outside their comfort zones to try new things and develop themselves into young adults that employers actually want to employ.”
Even after all these years, FFA is still rapidly growing across the United States. As of 2024, the FFA has more than 945,000 student members and 9,163 local FFA chapters across all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.