ANDOVER, Ohio — Pymatuning Valley FFA member Jessica Krulic was grand champion exhibitor in dairy beef feeders at the Ashtabula County Fair this year. She is also the Ashtabula County dairy princess. Rebecca Dillon took reserve grand champion exhibitor and best in show with her market duck. Bailee Mezarro showed her dairy cows in both the open and junior fair shows, and was the reserve grand champion steer exhibitor.

Taking firsts in showmanship were; Tricia Lautenan with her market hog; Savannah Lewis with her turkey; and Nikkita McGlaughlin with her market chickens. Chapter members Andrew Holden represented dairy beef feeders, and Bailee Mezarro represented steers in the super showman contest.

The chapter sold a community service dairy beef feeder for $1.25 per pound at the market livestock sale. The dairy feeder was purchased by Gary Britton-Britton Farms. All of the proceeds went to the Jeffrey B. Meddock Scholarship Fund.

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INDIANAPOLIS — FFA chapters in 27 states and Puerto Rico that developed a plan to tackle an environmental issue in their communities now have the funding from a national grant to bring their ideas to life.

Chapters from 74 communities learned recently that they received up to $2,000 in a grant from the National FFA Organization’s Living to Serve: Environmental Grant program and will begin their yearlong environmental project when the school year resumes.

The grants are provided through funding from CSX.

Each winning project includes plans to invest the time of FFA members, community members and local leaders in a service-learning project that tackles issues of environmental nature.

One grant recipient chapter, the Wilson FFA Chapter in Wilson, Kan., has plans to increase the output of a local recycling program by 50 percent. They intend to educate the community with recycling awareness, as well as purchase and placing new recycling bins around the school.

The FFA members will be tasked with maintaining the program and collecting recycled materials.

Another recipient was Connecticut’s Bloomfield FFA Chapter at the Harris Agriscience and Technology Center. FFA members there intend to tackle an invasive species, the Asian Longhorned Beetle, that is attacking local trees.

Their program intends to first educate the local community about the insect via four community workshops, establish a student-run blog that explains the problem to fellow students and also survey 20 percent of their town’s trees to inspect for signs the beetles. The data will then by shared with the USDA to help slow or stop the beetle infestation.