Northwestern FFA celebrates year

WEST SALEM, Ohio — The Northwestern-Wayne FFA chapter celebrated a successful year during its annual awards banquet April 4.

This year, the chapter consisted of 104 active members who were recognized for their hard work and dedication put forth throughout the year.

State Degree

The State Degree is awarded to the top of the membership in the state. Danae Mulligan, Allison McGinnis and Jessica Wellert will receive their degrees at state convention in May.

Tessa Hershey and Sabrina Johnson are the Star Greenhands and the Star Chapter recipient was Katryna Ousley.

The Star County Degree recipient was Karly Berry and the DeKalb award recipients were Kelsey Bowers and Kyle Schirm.

Scholarships

The Northwestern Alumni and Friends awarded students with $500 scholarships. The recipients were senior Rachael Gortner and Paul Keener, a college student pursuing a career in agriculture.

Commodity Blenders Inc. also continued their support with a scholarship of $500 to a senior student pursuing a career in agriculture. The recipient of the scholarship was Danae Mulligan.

There were several students who were recognized as outstanding sales people. They are Katryna Ousley and David Devore for fruit sales and Rachael Gortner and Kelsey Bowers for sausage sales.

For strawberry sales, Kelsey Bowers and David Devore were the top sellers.

The Partner in Active Learning Support members are Brittany Becker, Paige Bower, Jared Carpenter, Rebecca Espy, Rachael Gortner, Brice Hastings, Zach Hottel, Sara McWilliams, Alyson Michael, Anna Miley, Danae Mulligan, Karla Neer, Alyssa Obermiller, Jessica Roberts, Kyle Schirm, Olivia Stover, Crystal Takacs, Lisa Zavesky, Austin Gresser and Mackenzie Mehrl.

Addie Hastings and Jenna Pitsenbarger were the chairpersons of this committee for this year.

The Ag in the Classroom Committee consisted of Kelsey Bowers, David Coiner, Zane Dilyard, Rachael Gortner, Sabrina Johnson, Alyson Michael, Mulligan, Jake Napier, Karla Neer, Chelsea Odenkirk, Katryna Ousley, Zac Rogers, Kayleigh Rupert, Jessica Stevens, Chris Thomas, Tessa Topp, Jessica Wiandt and Lisa Zavesky.

The chairpersons for Ag in the Classroom are Adam Krueger and Zach Hottel.

Proficiency Awards

Many students received Proficiency Awards for their outstanding supervised agricultural experience projects. This year’s winners were Danae Mulligan, Kyle Schirm, Alison McGinnis, Jessica Wellert, Stephanie Yost, Katryna Ousley, Rachael, Lisa Zavesky, David Devore, Kelsey Bowers, Jerrin Hill, Jordan Boreman, Tessa Hershey, Sabrina Johnson and Karly Berry.

The Distinguished Service Awards were awarded to Pam McGinnis, Amy Campbell, Mr. and Mrs. Jim Flinn, Brian Bowers, Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Keener, Mr. and Mrs. Tony Kopronica, Roy Yost, Jim Tegtmeier, along with the Northwestern staff secretaries.

Karly Berry, Kelsey Bowers, Rachael Gortner, Zach Hottel, Alison McGinnis, Danae Mulligan, Karla Neer, Kyle Schirm, Olivia Stover, Jessica Wellert and Lisa Zavesky were awarded the Leadership Award.

The Scholarship Award is given to those who have earned straight A’s in an agriculture class for the first three quarters. This year the following received the award: David Coiner, Sarhra Flinn, Kelsey Geitgey, Tessa Hershey, Travis Holcomb, Sabrina Johnson, Elissa Lindeman, Sara McWilliams, Mackenzie Mehrl, Misty Meurer, Anna Miley, Alyssa Obermiller, Jessica Stevens, Tessa Topp, Marla Walton, Jessica Wiandt, Rebecca Espy, Adam Krueger, Olivia Stover, Chris Thomas, Blake Bellman, Karly Berry, Jerrin Hill, Zach Hottel, Will Ladrach, Alison McGinnis, Jessica Wellert, Kelsey Bowers, Rachael Gortner, Danae Mulligan, Karla Neer, Kyle Schirm, and Lisa Zavesky.

Contests

This year has been a successful one for the chapter with Career Development Contests. Danae Mulligan, Kelsey Bowers, Rachael Gortner, Lisa Zavesky, Alison McGinnis, Karly Berry, Jessica Wellert, Jerrin Hill, Zach Hottel, Chris Thomas, Sara McWilliams, Crystal Takacs, Sarhra Flinn, Tessa Hershey, Sabrina Johnson, Marla Walton, Stacie Kingsbury, Amber Franks, David Devore, Karla Neer, Kent Way, Zach Burgett, Chelsea Odenkirk, Nathan Garver, Brittany Mowrer, Tessa Topp, Tyler Topp, Anna Miley, William Frankenberg, Cera Chio, Mark Monaco, Katryna Ousley, Bruce Maximovich, Kyle Schirm, Olivia Stover, Zane Dilyard, Travis Clark, Mitch Dillon, Tori Campbell, Katie Kidd and Adam Krueger were recognized for participating in the contests.

Laura Gordon, District 3 president from the Ohio FFA State Association, attended the banquet and presented an inspiring speech to the members and guests.

New officers

At the end of the evening the 2009-10 officer team was installed. The team is made up of Karly Berry, president; Jerrin Hill, vice president; Olivia Stover, secretary; Katryna Ousley, treasurer; Zach Hottel, reporter; Jessica Wellert, sentinel; Adam Krueger, student adviser and Alison McGinnis, Austin Gresser, Sabrina Johnson, Tessa Hershey and Chris Thomas, general assistants.