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Urbana High School
Future Farmers of America
The 2008-2009 FFA Officers pictured at the Urbana FFA Banquet
2008-2009 Urbana High School FFA Officers |
| President...............Caleb Blaney |
Secretary..............Scotty Johnson |
| 2nd President........Kristi Haines |
Treasurer................Gregg Morris |
| 3rd President.........Drew Harmon |
Reporter.................Chad Blaney |
| Vice President.......Jeff Carter |
Advisor...................Mike Martin |
Heritage Activities - Section 17 Winner & Gold Ranking in State
FFA Heritage Activities - The Heritage award program is sponsored by the Illinois Farm Bureau and its affiliated companies. The Heritage Program is a competitive exercise that is offered only to FFA Chapters in Illinois. This program is designed to be included as an integral part of each FFA Chapter’s total program of activities. The chapter Heritage Program should be designed to inform people about their heritage and their rights and responsibilities as citizens. The different categories of the Heritage application and title of the FFA activity that matches the category is underlined.
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Agricultural Development – Framing the Chapter Charter
The Urbana FFA decided to frame its chapter charter to honor the founding of the FFA chapter in 2007. The officers decided that the chapter should build the frame themselves instead of having done professionally. The cooperative committee volunteered to build it. The construction of the frame represented the ability of the Urbana FFA officers to come together to accomplish a task through skill, motivation, and organization. The chapter reporter publicized the event through the Urbana FFA newsletter and FFA website. |
Agricultural Development - Prairie Garden
The Urbana agriculture program and FFA decided to build a prairie garden to educate students and local community members, whom know little about agriculture. It would be a learning laboratory for students and be important to the Urbana community who is interested in environmentalism. The committee had to find land to build the prairie garden, raise money for the project, and decided what to plant in the first year. 20 members, school officials, and community members were involved with the planning. The Prairie Garden is important for agricultural development in the Urbana community. The program succeeded in getting land adjacent to the high school donated by the school district. The chapter received two grants for $325.00 to buy supplies. A committee was formed with school administration and community members to advise about the garden. The students built a retaining wall and planted a variety of prairie grasses and flowers in the first year. Over 20 of the members participated in the construction and planting of the prairie garden. The Urbana students and community have a local prairie garden to explore, and enjoy, and learn from. Furthermore, the Urbana FFA members learned the basics of restoring environments. |
Flag Use, Care, and Ceremonies - Passing out Flags and Constitutions
The Heritage committee wanted to give out American flags and pocket constitutions during the National Election Day to educate and encourage national pride. The committee bought 250 miniature flags and requested 250 pocket constitutions from the Heritage foundation. FFA members boxed up the goods for the different American Government classes at Urbana. All FFA members received a free flag and constitution as well. The Heritage committee believed that giving students something educational, pocket constitution, as well as symbolic, miniature flags, would go farther in meeting our Heritage committee goals than just giving flags. Many students did not own a flag and almost no one had a copy of the constitution. |
Contacting State and Federal Officials – Writing Letters to the State Government Leaders
The Urbana FFA wrote letters to state officials thanking them for their support of secondary agricultural education in Illinois. The Agricultural Education line item gives over a million dollars to all of the over 300 agriculture programs in Illinois. This money is used to build programs by buying curriculum materials, purchasing equipment, and supporting student activities. The Urbana FFA received $5000 over the past 2 years because of our status as a new secondary agricultural education program. The Urbana FFA wanted to make sure that our legislators knew that we were supportive of their efforts in the legislature. |
Election of Public Officials – Doughnuts at the Polling Stations
The Heritage committee decided that giving food to polling stations was an important idea. The county clerk was enthused because they could not afford to supply food to the 21 polling stations in Urbana. The committee budgeted for doughnuts, 12 for each station. The delivery of the doughnuts took 2 hours. The 6 members of Heritage committee were involved in the planning of the event and 5 FFA members delivered the doughnuts the morning of Election Day. The delivery of doughnuts was a great activity for the Election of Public Officials category because we contributed to the great work done by the polling workers. They received no food throughout their work day and were very appreciative of our donation. They even sent a card thanking our FFA members. The 11 FFA members involved in the planning and delivering of the activity learned about local government, how polling stations are divided amongst a township, and how to work with local government officials. The members also organized and executed the delivery of the 21 dozen doughnuts in 2 hours. The school's image was also impacted by the positive impact the Urbana FFA. |
Election of Public Officials – Mock Elections and Voter Drive at UHS
The Urbana FFA worked cooperatively with the Urbana High School Student Government Association (SGA) during the 2008 National Elections to educate and engage the student body. The SGA was promoting a student worker drive for the polling stations, voter drive, and hosting a mock election. The Urbana FFA volunteered their services to the SGA. The groups decided that FFA could help promote the two events by designing, making, and hanging posters around the school. The Election Day had over 500 students vote in the mock election. |
Local Government – Task Force Meeting for Local and Sustainable Agriculture
The FFA visited an Illinois Department of Agriculture state-wide task force meeting on local and sustainable agriculture. The Heritage committee chose this activity because the topics were important to agricultural community within Urbana. It focused on how to promote local and sustainable farming through education and governmental assistance. The 5 FFA members involved learned about these topics and they began to think about ways to incorporate the topic in the chapter activities. |
Heritage of Local Community – Urbana Sweet Corn Festival
The Urbana FFA volunteered at the 33rd annual Urbana Sweet Corn Festival. The members shucked corn, cooked corn, and buttered the corn on the first two days of the festival. We also helped set-up the corn corking area on the first day. All of the hard work earned them an ear of corn, a t-shirt, & the respect of the festival organizers and community. |
Local Government – Urbana City Council
The Urbana FFA visited a meeting of the Urbana City Council in February. The meeting allowed our members to witness Urbana government in action. We learned about new city economic developments and road construction. |
Historical Sites and Famous Americans – Presidential Presentation
The FFA put on a skit for the Prairie Elementary School that focused on the American Presidents. Three presidents were represented, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Barrack Obama. The skit included 2 secret service agents and a press secretary. The skit was preformed in front the kindergartners of Prairie Elementary of Urbana. The performance was in honor of President’s and all of the children received a miniature American flag. Everyone involved had a great time and we all learned about our American presidents. |
Historical Sites and Famous Americans – Abraham Lincoln Museum
The Urbana FFA visited the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Library during the summer. Students learned about the life and times of Lincoln. The exhibits of the museum were state of the art and included historical pieces from his life and 3-D movie experiences. It is a must for everyone visiting Springfield. |
Contacting State and Federal Officials – Writing Letters to the State Government Leaders
Please add this into the section that already exists. We are basically adding the letter that we sent to the legislators. The new entry would look like this –
“The Urbana FFA wrote letters to state officials thanking them for their support of secondary agricultural education in Illinois. The Agricultural Education line item gives over a million dollars to all of the over 300 agriculture programs in Illinois. This money is used to build programs by buying curriculum materials, purchasing equipment, and supporting student activities. The Urbana FFA received $5000 over the past 2 years because of our status as a new secondary agricultural education program. The Urbana FFA wanted to make sure that our legislators knew that we were supportive of their efforts in the legislature. The letter read as follows:
Dear Senator;
The Urbana Agricultural Program would like to thank you for your support of Agricultural Educational line item in the Illinois State Board of Education budget. Our program is only two years old, but we have put the funds you allocated for us to great use. The Urbana Community is a suburban community that lacked Agricultural Education in there schools. The money has been put toward hands on learning opportunities, such as mechanical, food, plant, animal, and environmental sciences. Students are leaving Urbana High School with knowledge and career opportunities never before known to the community. Additionally the founding of our program included the chartering of the Urbana FFA Chapter. FFA membership is currently at 30 members and growing. The FFA provides students with educational career and personal growth through leadership training, career development events, and mentoring activities. We invite you to visit our Chapter website at http://www.usd116.org/uhs/activities/ffa.html. All of these wonderful opportunities for our students would not be possible without your support of the Agricultural Educational line item. We hope that you continue to support this funding and give more students a chance to learn about Agriculture. Thank you for your support and time, good day.” |
Cooperative Activities - Section 17 Winner & Gold Ranking in State
FFA Cooperative Activities - The Cooperative Activities award program is sponsored by the Illinois Farm Bureau and its affiliated companies. The Cooperative Activities Program is a competitive exercise that is offered only to FFA Chapters in Illinois. This program is designed to be included as an integral part of each FFA Chapter’s total program of activities. The chapter Cooperative Activities Program should be developed throughout the year by individual FFA Chapters embracing the actual operation of cooperative practices within the FFA Chapter and its community. The different categories of the Cooperative application and title of the FFA activity that matches the category is underlined.
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Chapter Corporative – FFA Construction Cooperative
The Urbana FFA Construction Program uses their skills to build a variety of indoor and outdoor products, such as picnic tables, Adirondack chairs, and fire pit benchers. The construction program is a chapter cooperative. The cooperative is designed as a centralized (decisions are made from the top-down with a cooperative manager and board of directors) value-added (turning raw materials into finished goods) cooperative. The students are shareholders in the program. All money made in the cooperative will either be used towards student FFA experience. The workers in this program can use the money earned from their labor in building and selling these items towards FFA events, purchasing their own FFA jacket, and more. The money made from the patronage of the students’ stocks will be used to fund a student fun field trip in the spring. The FFA stand went to the Champaign County Fair and varsity home football games to try and sell their products. Some of our most popular products were Picnic Table - $100.00, Adirondack Chairs - $50.00, and Fire Pit Benchers - $45.00. Please get a hold of Mr. Martin if you interested in these products or anything that we can make. |
Instruction on Cooperatives (Guest Speaker)
Roger Read of Illini FS of Urbana visited the Urbana High School to talk to the FFA officers about how cooperatives function. The event was a working lunch with pizza being served. The members learned about to improve our cooperative and exactly what type of cooperative that we had. The officers also got ideas on how to improve the chapter cooperative the next year. |
Instruction on Cooperative (Tour) – Prairie Land Creamery and Farm
The Urbana FFA decided to visit Prairie Land Creamery and Farms in the Fall for a variety of reasons. First, the creamery and farm, ran by Dr. Wes Jarrell of University of Illinois and his wife, belongs to a number a local food cooperatives that emphasizes local agricultural products. These cooperatives are an important fixture to the Urbana community where local grown produce is important to the general population. Students learned what it takes to run a small farm and how being part of a local food cooperative works. The second reason for going to Prairie Land Creamery and Farms was their use of milking goats for cheeses. The FFA members enjoy being around goats and eating cheese. They learned how to care for goats, proper milking techniques, and what different cheeses are made from goats’ milk. |
Cooperative Buying - FFA Apparel
The Urbana FFA chapter used its buying power to buy FFA apparel in bulk and then sell the goods to members for a discounted price. Members quickly realized benefits of cooperatively buying goods by the amount of money spent. The amount spent was $812.00. The process included FFA members deciding on different designs for the FFA officer polo’s, FFA shirts, FFA hats, FFA varsity letters, and FFA sweat shirts. Students saved anywhere from $2.50 up to $20.00 on the different apparel. Buying in bulk also allowed the chapter to have a surplus of apparel on hand. FFA members who wore the apparel were the best promoters of the organization in a school that has little knowledge of the agriculture or FFA. |
Cooperative Financing - Working in the Shop to Pay for Dues and Jackets
The Urbana FFA promoted their construction program by financing FFA memberships. Students that worked in the shop on construction projects earned a free membership when the projects were sold. This gave students the opportunity to be part of the FFA even if they can not afford the dues. Students worked together on a wide variety projects to fund their memberships. So far 7 students has their dues funded through this program. Students learned the value of cooperative financing through this program. |
Cooperative Selling - Fruit Sales
The Urbana FFA needed to raise money for Career Development Events (CDE) resources. The chapter officers decided that having a fruit sale in the last part of 2008 would help raise some money for these resources by cooperatively selling fruit. Members worked together to sell the fruit to friends, family, teachers, and community members. They sold over $1500.00 of fruit and raised over $500.00 for the chapter. The money was used for purchasing textbooks for public speaking, DVD’s for poultry, resources for meat judging, milk and cheese for dairy products, and poultry supplies. All agriculture students benefited though our splash agriculture program and FFA members used them to prepare for CDEs. |
Ag. Cooperative Services for Members – FFA buying Discounted Lumber
The Urbana FFA was able to use their resources to purchase a large volume of lumber at a discounted price. The purchase of the lumber was a service to our FFA members and agriculture students who could easily afford the cheaper lumber. Armstrong Lumber of Urbana had a variety of bulk lumber for sale in large quantities. Most of the lumber bought was ¾” thick seven layer plywood shaped as half moon pieces that was over six feet long. There were 134 half moon pieces sold at $1.00. The lumber had to be cut into 6” and 12” wide pieces. Each half moon produced six 6” boards at various lengths and three 12” boards at various lengths. FFA members were responsible for cutting down the half moon shapes. The actual value and savings of the lumber is at least $500.00. The lumber was used for students’ in class projects. |
Cooperating with School Groups – SGA and Mock Elections
The Urbana FFA worked cooperatively with the Urbana High School Student Government Association (SGA) during the 2008 National Elections to educate and engage the student body. The SGA was promoting a student worker drive for the polling stations, voter drive, and hosting a mock election. The Urbana FFA volunteered their services to the SGA. The groups decided that FFA could help promote the two events by designing, making, and hanging posters around the school. The Election Day had over 500 students vote in the mock election. |
Cooperating with other Non-School Groups – Illini FS Petting Zoo
The Urbana FFA volunteered to cooperated with the Illini FS Harvest Festival to educate the community about agriculture by running a petting zoo. The event started early as FFA members helped unload animals, design pins, and prepare food. The petting zoo had goats, chicks, ducks, miniature donkeys, pigs, turkeys, and rabbits. The FFA members were responsible for the animal’s well being as well as the safety of the children petting the animals. The Harvest Festival lasted into the afternoon and included a wide variety of activities for the public. FFA members were treated to a lunch and enjoyed the day. |
Urbana FFA Competition Results
Section 17 Hose Judging Competition
Urbana FFA finished 3rd
Award winners were:
Chad Blaney – 2nd Highest Individual
Molly Harmon 10th Highest Individual
Other team members were:
Mahala Kneller, Drew Harmon, and Quinton Garrett |
Section 17 Meats Competition
Team was 3rd of 12 Teams
Drew Harmon was 10th Overall
Other Team Members: Mahala Kneller, Kenneth Johnston, and Scotty Johnson |
Section 17 Land Use Competition
Urbana FFA finished 9th out 25 teams
Team members were:
Chad Blaney, Drew Harmon, Carlos Draine, and Nathan White |
Section 17 Creed Speaking Contest
Molly Harmon – 8th Overall |
West Central Illinois Livestock Invitational
Urbana FFA finished 8th out of 15 teams
Award winners were:
Molly Harmon – 12th Highest Overall Individual, 10th Highest Individual in Beef, 7th Highest Individual in Swine
Mahala Kneller – 16th Highest Overall Individual, 2nd Highest Individual in Sheep
Other team members were:
Drew Harmon, Carlos Draine, Chad Blaney, and Hannah Blaney |
Section 17 Record Book Proficiency Awards
1st – Caleb Blaney – Agricultural Mechanics: Design and Fabrication
1st – Kristi Haines – Agriculture Education |
Section 10 Livestock Competition Invitational
Urbana FFA finished 14th out of 29 teams
Award winners were:
Drew Harmon – 16th Highest Individual Overall
Other team members:
Molly Harmon, Carlos Draine, and Chad Blaney |
Astoria Poultry Invitational Contest
Team was 1st Overall
Caleb Blaney – 1st Overall Individual, Chad Blaney – 2nd Overall Individual
Other Team Members: Hannah Blaney, Josh Irvin, and Mahala Kneller |
Section 17 Agronomy Contest
Urbana FFA Finished 9th out of 14 teams
Team Members were:
Mahala Kneller, Molly Harmon, and Ben Duffett |
Section 17 Poultry Contest
Team was 2nd Overall
Hannah Blaney was 7th Overall, Caleb Blaney was 9th Overall
Other Team Members: Chad Blaney, Josh Irvin, Mahala Kneller, and Jamie Crawford |
Section 17 Dairy Products Contest
Urbana FFA Finished 2nd out of 13 teams
Award Winners were:
Drew Harmon – 3rd Highest Individual
Greg Morris – 4th Highest Individual
Kristi Haines – 7th Highest Individual
Other Team Members were:
Caleb Blaney, Chad Blaney, Mahala Kneller, Molly Harmon, and Jeff Carter |
State Dairy Products CDE Results
Team was 12th of 36 Teams
Team Members: Drew Harmon (Blue Ribbon and 33rd overall), Kristi Haines (Red Ribbon), Greg Morris (Red Ribbon), and Mahala Kneller (White Ribbon) |
State Meats FFA CDE
Urbana was 14th overall
Team Members were: Scotty Johnson,
Kenneth Johnston, Drew Harmon, and Jerae Murphy
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State Poultry FFA CDE
Urbana was 11th Overall
Team Members were: Caleb Blaney
Chad Blaney, Hannah Blaney, and Josh Irvin |
Black Hawk Livestock Competition
Urbana was 23rd out of 42 Teams
Caleb Blaney was 10th Overall in Sheep
Team Members were: Jeff Carter,
Chad Blaney, and Trenton Humes |
Section 17 Livestock CDE
Urbana was 2nd out of 8 Teams
Caleb was 5th Overall and 2nd in Sheep
Team Members were: Jeff Carter, Chad Blaney
Mahala Kneller, Ashanti Balch and Trenton Humes |
Lake Land Livestock Completion
Urbana was 17th out of 47 Teams
Team Members were: Caleb Blaney, Jeff Carter,
Chad Blaney, Mahala Kneller, Ashanti Balch and Trenton Humes |
Lincoln Land Livestock Competition
Team was 32nd out of 70 Teams
Team Members were: Caleb Blaney, Jeff Carter,
Chad Blaney, Mahala Kneller, Ashanti Balch and Trenton Humes |
Liberty Livestock Competition
Team was 13th out of 18 Teams
Team Members were: Caleb Blaney, Jeff Carter,
Chad Blaney, Mahala Kneller, Ashanti Balch and Trenton Humes
Mr. Martin was 2nd out of 7 in the Advisors Competition |
District FFA Proficiency Awards
Caleb Blaney – 1st in Agricultural Mechanics: Design and Fabrication
He will be competing in State as 1 of the Top 5 in his Area
Kristi Haines – 2nd in Agricultural Education |
Spoon River College Livestock
Urbana was 10th out of 25 teams
Drew Harmon was 3rd in Sheep
Caleb Blaney was 17th Overall
Chad Blaney was 19th Overall
Other team members were Jeff Carter,
Trent Humes, and Ashanti Balch |
Section 17 Agricultural Mechanics Contest
Urbana was 3rd out 7 teams
Caleb Blaney was 2nd in Welding
Quinton Garrett was 4th in Carpentry
Kenneth Johnston was 4th in Surveying
Chad Blaney was 5th in Power
Scotty Johnson was 5th in Electricity |
Illinois Environmental Protect Agency – Green Youth Awards
Urbana Agriculture was Honorable Mention
for our Prairie Garden on the corner of Iowa and Race |
Bond County Dairy Cattle Contest
Jamie Crawford earned an 8th place
Ashanti Balch earned a 10th place
Other team members was Hannah Blaney |
Section 17 FFA Horticulture Contest
Urbana was 5th out of 8 teams
Jake Tammen was 9th overall
Other team members were Anthony Miller,
Kristi Haines, and Brittany Likens |
Illinois Farm Bureau - Heritage Program
1st in Section 17
Gold Rating in State
1 student gets an almost free week long trip to Washing D.C. |
Illinois Farm Bureau - Cooperative Program
1st in Section 17
Gold Rating in State
Another student gets an almost free week long trip to Washing D.C. |
State Horticulture CDE
Urbana was 25th out of 35 schools
Team Members: Jake Tammen,
Kristi Haines, Brittany Likens, and Anthony Miller |
State Livestock CDE
Urbana was 96th out of 139 schools
Team Members: Caleb Blaney, Jeff Carter,
Drew Harmon, and Mahala Kneller
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State Dairy Cattle CDE
Urbana was 72nd out of 82 schools
Team Members: Hannah Blaney, Chad Blaney,
Jamee Crawford, and Ashanti Balch |
Urbana FFA Calendar |
2008-2009 |
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| July 24th, 2008 – County Fair to Sell Products through the FFA Construction Program |
| August 22nd–23rd, 2008 – Urbana Sweet Corn Festival to Volunteer with the Festival |
| August-October, 2008 – Urbana Home Football Games to Sell out our FFA Construction Booth |
| September 10th, 2008 – FFA Chapter Reporter’s Workshop at Lake Land Community College |
| Sept. 20th, 2008 – Section 17 and State FFA Horse Judging Competition at Black Hawk College |
| September 23rd, 2008 – Section 17 FFA Land-Use Competition |
| September 27th, 2008 - West Central Illinois Livestock Invitational in Augusta |
| October 4th, 2008 - Section 10 FFA Livestock Invitational in Clifton |
| October 8th – Section 17 FFA Leadership Training School |
| October 11th - Prairie Elementary Fall Festival to Help with Games |
| October 18th - Illini Feed Store's Farm Day to help with Petting Zoo in Urbana |
| October 22nd–25th, 2008 – National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, IN |
| November 4th, 2008 – Deliver Gifts to Polling Station Volunteers in Champaign-Urbana |
| November 4th, 2008 – Mock National Election at Urbana High School |
| November 7th, 2008 – Urbana FFA Fall Honor Roll Fun Night |
| November 13th, 2008 – Section 17 FFA Agronomy and Dairy Foods Competition |
| December 13th, 2008 - State FFA Agronomy and Dairy Foods Competition at the U of I |
| December 15th, 2008 – Section 17 FFA Bowling Fun Night |
| January 23rd, 2009 – Urbana FFA Winter Honor Roll Fun Night |
| January 28th, 2009 – Section 17 Public Speaking Contest |
| February 5th, 2009 – Section 17 FFA Meats Competition |
| February 21st, 2009 – Section 17 FFA Proficiency Awards and State FFA Degree Interviews |
| February 21st-28th – National FFA Week (Includes Urbana FFA Chapter Activities) |
| February 24th, 2009 – Section 17 FFA Volleyball Fun Night |
| March 3rd, 2009 – Section 17 FFA Poultry Competition |
| March 7th, 2009 – State Meats Competition |
| March 14th, 2009 - Section 17 FFA Livestock Competition |
| March 21st, 2009 – State Poultry Competition |
| April 6th- 7th, Farm Bureau Youth Conference in Decatur, IL |
| April 16th, 2009 - Section 17 FFA Agricultural Mechanics Competition |
| April 17th. 2009 - Urbana FFA Spring Honor Roll Fun Night |
| April 23rd, 2009 - Section 17 FFA Agricultural Business and Horticulture Competition |
| April 28th, 2009 – State FFA Livestock, Horticulture, and Dairy Cattle Competition at the U of I |
| May 7th, 2009 – Section 17 FFA Banquet |
| May, 2008 – Urbana FFA Banquet |
| June 9th-11th, 2009 – Illinois State FFA Convention in Springfield, IL |
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More activities will be added over the course of the year! |
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