Belleville Henderson FFA Receives NYS Agricultural Society’s 2013 FFA Chapter of the Year Award

The New York State Agricultural Society awarded its 2013 “FFA Chapter of the Year” Award to the Belleville Henderson FFA Chapter at its 181st Annual Agricultural Forum on January 10th in Syracuse.  The New York State Grange sponsors this award and presented the “golden tractor” rotating trophy. (article submitted by: Marcie Hauri, student)

For a chapter who sends over 30 FFA members to a chapter officer training, has done interviews on a local television station to further educate the public about agriculture, and has three different research crops for their students, there is no question why Belleville Henderson FFA is the chapter of the year.

 Ms. Tedra McDougal is the agricultural teacher and advisor at Belleville Henderson. There she teaches Aquaculture, Horticulture, Environmental Science, Agricultural Science, Animal Science, and Agricultural Engineering. This October at the 2012 National FFA Convention, State President Amanda Rhodes proudly went up on stage to accept a plaque for Belleville Henderson-- chapter of the year for New York State.

Belleville Henderson FFA helps to develop their members on a personal level through leadership conferences such as COLT (Chapter Officer Leadership Training), and the 212/360 leadership conference in January. Members also have the opportunity to participate in job shadowing with Poulin Grain where students work with others in the agricultural industry and learn about becoming dairy nutritionists.

On the chapter level Belleville Henderson grows and sells their own sweet corn as a way to educate the students on what environmental conditions are necessary to grow quality corn and to teach them how to manage their finances with a hands-on experience. In addition to growing corn and learning about business management of the chapter, they also hold a Community Agricultural Fair attended by over 300 community members to learn more about agriculture and to see what students have done with their exhibits.

Belleville Henderson FFA is very involved in their community: they collect canned food items to donate to the Rhode Center-- a local food pantry, and Ms. McDougal and the chapter work with 4th grade students to make dog biscuits to donate to the homeless dogs.  Another thing that the chapter does annually in their community is to read to the elementary classes on Ag Literacy day to teach younger students where their food comes from.

Congratulations to Belleville Henderson FFA and to Ms. Tedra McDougal for all of your work and dedication to educate the public and further FFA and agriculture.

Strengthening agriculture since 1832, the Ag Society played an instrumental role in establishing vital organizations in New York State including Cornell University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, the Department of Agriculture and Markets, the New York State Fair, LEAD New York, and most recently, the New York State Agricultural Society Foundation. The Society's mission is to improve New York agriculture through education, leadership development and recognition programs. For more information or to join the NYS Agricultural Society visit www.nysagsociety.org or contact Executive Secretary, Penny Heritage, at [email protected] , (518) 384-1715.

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Photo ID: (L-R)

Back Row- Jake Allen, Erik Shelmidine, Nicole Race, Leann Green.

Front Row—NYS Ag Commissioner Darrel Aubertine, Paige Levandowski- NYS FFA Vice President, Samantha Furman, Jazmine Ferguson, Tedra McDougal- Advisor, Stephen Coye- NYS Grange (award sponsor).

Penny Heritage

Executive Secretary & Publicity Coordinator

New York State Agricultural Society

493 Charlton Road

Ballston Spa, NY 12020

518-384-1715

www.nysagsociety.org

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