FFA students win awards

KENNEWICK — The Lind-Ritzville High School Future Farmers of America chapter placed second in the state team Meats Evaluation last month.

The high school team also had several high-placing individuals at the 93rd annual state convention.

Alyssa Williams placed third, Zoe Galbreath fourth, Taylor Galbreath sixth and Jonathon Stromberger ninth.

Approximately 2,000 FFA members gathered to learn and compete in Career and Leadership Development at the convention. Of the 30 Career and Leadership Development events at the competition, Lind-Ritzville competed in 14.

“When members compete at the state level, they are not just competing against schools of our size, but against all FFA members in Washington- from small rural schools to large, urban high schools.” FFA Adviser and ag teacher Lori Sanderson said.

Students prepared for the competition by competing in other events, such as the Meats Evaluation team competing in the Washington State University Cougar Invitational Meats Contest and National Western Stock Show in Denver.

Williams, Taylor and Zoe Galbreath, and John Stromberger earned scholarships from both events totaling approximately $3,500.

“Our FFA Members worked hard and spent tons of time outside of school to practice and compete to be ready for these state level contests.” Sanderson said. “Balancing school, sports, work, and FFA is not always the easiest schedule for a high schooler.”

Lind-Ritzville enjoyed a successful state competition with teams placing in agronomy, livestock evaluation, farm and agribusiness management, ag sales, meats valuation, floriculture, marketing plan, soil evaluation, Spanish creed, speaking, poultry evaluation and food science.

“We are fortunate to have some dedicated FFA members who have a drive to be successful.” Sanderson said.

State-winning Agronomy and Livestock Evaluation teams will compete at nationals in Indianapolis, Ind., this coming October.

The FFA chapter still has two teams competing in July at the state Dairy Cattle Evaluation Career Development Event in Monroe.

“Hopefully [to] qualify one more to team to Nationals” Sanderson said.