Ritzville FFA chapter installs new members, delivers awards

The Ritzville FFA chapter hosted the annual Greenhand Initiation Night on Thursday, Dec. 8, in the shop. There were three different awards distributed; the discovery, greenhand and chapter farmer awards in which each respective member was awarded a pin.

The newest discovery members to the Ritzville FFA chapter are Joel Anderson, Ryan Frederick, Bryson Gering, Mike Oestreich, Skyler Oestreich, Michael Shields and Andrew Witt.

The chapter welcomed the new Greenhand members: Ryan Balkcom, Dalton Barnes, Brian Campbell, Tom Gallagher, Heidi Hennings, Hugh Hennings, Trevor Jantz, Mallory Kessler, Matthew Leffel, Katie Manke, Jana Mattox, Tyler O’Brien, Cort Ruzicka, Kate Schell, Grant Wengeler, B.J. White and Randi York.

The chapter also welcomed the newest Chapter Farmer members: Soraida Chavez, Tyler Frederick, Dylan Hartz, Heather Hennings, Tristan Meek, Jarradd Morley, Logan Morley, Sydney Nelson, Caitlin Schoessler, Elizabeth Schofstoll and Caleb Stanley.

The banquet began with the opening ceremonies being said by the Ritzville FFA Chapter’s officers and Catie Coon performed the invocation and did the benediction later in the ceremony. The chapter president Palmer Phillips welcomed all of the attendees before recognizing all of the award recipients.

The Washington State FFA Vice President, Kyle Strachila, was the keynote speaker for the event. He spoke about how impressed he was about the amount of students involved in FFA in Ritzville and their accomplishments in the last year.

Caitlin Schoessler performed the FFA Creed and Chelsey Heidenreich, who sang at the National FFA Conventional earlier this year, performed her newest song for the audience.

Ritzville FFA chapter advisor Brad Gering spoke at length about the accomplishments of his chapter members in group and individual events during the past year and upcoming events chapter members intend on competing in. A few of these events include Parliamentary Procedure, food science, dairy foods and public speaking.

“Our goal is to develop leaders between competition and helping community,” said Gering.

The banquet concluded with an ice cream social, allowing parents and chapter members to discuss many different aspects of the FFA. The Ritzville FFA chapter is proud of the achievements so far this school year, and all of the students in the blue and gold jackets look forward to the upcoming events.