After Birth Ball a success for FFA chapter, chamber

MEEKER I The Meeker Chamber of Commerce and the newly founded Friends of the FFA joined together to provide a fun-filled evening for the community on May 21. The second annual After Birth Ball was held at the Fairfield Center. Outstanding attendance made the event a huge success.
The original After Birth Ball took place annually until the mid 1980s and then faded away. Last year the Meeker chamber reintroduced the celebration of spring to the community.
Katelin Cook, the chamber’s executive director, said, “I was very pleased with the turn out and hope it will continue to be a great community event.”
Cook worked extremely hard on this event and acquired approximately $3,500 in donations from Enterprise, Encana, XTO and Williams to provide the band, location, advertisements and decorations for the evening.
Friends of FFA also received tremendous support from several community members. Todd Morris and Ben Rogers donated their time to cook their specialty meats — roast pork and beef tri-tips — for the meal. The pig was donated by the CSU Livestock Judging program. Artwork was donated by several artists including John Kobald. Toys and several other prizes were supplied by several businesses, along with monetary donations from Doug Moody, Petrox Resources, the Stockgrowers Association, the CattleWomens Association and the Woolgrowers Association.
With the hard work of Tera and Clint Shults, Quentin and Trina Smith, Paul and Shannon Sheridan, along with so many other FFA members and their parents, the FFA program was able to raise money for future events. This year, Trina Smith’s eighth as advisor, the FFA began with 62 members.
In June the judging team of Stacey Fitzgibbons, Maclaine Shults and Clay Carlson will compete in Scotland at the Royal Highland Show. They won the judging event at the National Western Stock Show in January, which the original team qualified for by placing second in last year’s state event.
The Ag. Communications team of Katelyn Dinwiddie, Caleb Dodds, Krysten Atchley, Maclaine Shults and Kelsey Gross also won a state event this year which qualified them for the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Ind., in October.
Several members will participating in this year’s state convention: Stephany Joos, Maclaine Shults, Kasey Collins, Kaylyn Dunham, John Mac Sheridan and Torrie Gerloff.
Obviously, several students will benefit from the After Birth Ball. The goal of the Friends of the FFA is to make it an annual event to raise scholarship money to further excellence in leadership and agriculture.
“I was really excited about the support the community showed and how the event brought the town together,” Trina Smith said.
The evening’s events began with dinner, followed by a live auction led by Paul Sheridan. The tables were cleared for dancing to music provided by a great band. The packed house enjoyed entertainment, friendship and simply gathering as a community.