Rangely FFA club preps for annual ‘labor auction’

RANGELY — The Rangely FFA chapter has been keeping busy this year. In its second year as a chartered organization, the chapter’s officers have been planning and organizing.
The group started the fall with an officer retreat at South Fork. The officers spent parts of three days working on the chapter calendar and new programs to the school.
The officer team consists of Hillary Hayes, president; Chance Holcomb, vice president; Logan Osborne, secretary; Hastin Boulger, treasurer; Jaid Seegmiller, reporter; Casey Chapman, sentinel; and Kindal Cushman, executive committee member.
These officers are the group that is leading the Rangely FFA chapter which has 33 members. Crandal Mergelman says he is very happy with having 32 FFA members, especially for only being in the group’s second year.
The chapter has held a few activities and meetings throughout the fal, but its best-attended meeting was the annual holiday party. There were 22 kids in attendance where they had a gift exchange, a Guitar Hero tournament and had a few vicious games of “spoons.” The group also had some discussion to help plan the National Western Stock Show trip.
Twenty-one FFA members attended the National Western Stock Show trip this year. From the bus rides to the rodeo it was quite the memorable excursion.
With a large itinerary, we found ourselves busy and running out of time. Due to the snow and the cold temperatures the zoo tour was canceled. This caused some disappointment among some of the members and a sigh of relief from some of the others.
At the Museum of Nature and Science, kids attended the IMAX theater and thought it was a great film. Other kids took time to explore wildlife from across the globe, as well as prehistoric exhibits and, of course, the gift shop.
From there, the next stop was the Bass Pro Shop. Souvenirs were collected in great mass at this stop. The group also had some quality bonding time while at the motel. It even had one member, Derek Tuck, who gave Casey Chapman a short swimming lesson. No one could quite figure out why they both decided to go swimming in their Wranglers. Levin Boulger said, “Casey may need to invest in some floaties!”
The second day was spent at the stock show. Most of the day was spent walking around looking at the displays and booths. Kids looked at booths ranging from clothes, farm machinery, cattle and pig shows, semen distributors and Dip ‘n Dots.
The Junior Swine show was going on that day. Hastin Boulger took the opportunity to watch it. “Holy cow, some of those pigs are thick,” Boulger said.
As the day moved on, we were getting more excited to attend the rodeo.
“As an official member of the FFA and this having been my first rodeo ever, I would like to say it was “Falepino” or in other words, great,” said Storie Marchant, a new senior this semester who went on the trip.
The one-armed-bandit preformed his last show at the NWSS that night and the Colorado FFA Heifer Wrangle, as well as the cowboys and cowgirls were seen at the rodeo. The entire trip was a blast.
One thing that will never be forgotten was the bonding experience shared between Rozilynn Thacker and Chad Peterson, both new members of the FFA chapter. On the bus ride home Thacker sang a heartfelt solo to the “Kiss Me” song played by Sixpence None the Richer, to Chad. She said, “It was all fun and games, ha ha ha!” As a group we had a great time and enjoyed the museum and educational experience.
The week of Feb. 18-23 was national FFA week. The officers and members will have some activities going on throughout the week.
The chapter held a chapter lunch and meeting, some school public service announcements, as well as some community involvement activities.
The FFA chapter is also sponsoring a pork giveaway to help raise money for our trips and activities.
Tickets are $4 for one or $20 for six. First place is awarded a whole pig and second and third are awarded half a pig each. We will announce the winner at the Labor Auction. You do not have to be present to win and if you are interested, please contact any FFA member or call Mergelman at (970) 675-2253.
As mentioned earlier, the chapter’s annual labor auction is set for March 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the RHS lower commons. Last year we had a great response and our officer team has set as a goal to better the turnout for this year.
Each of the FFA members will be selling eight hours of their muscles and labor to the highest bidder. If anyone is interested in attending please show up and put the kids to work for you. We would really like to thank all of the buyers and bidders from last year as the auction would not have been a success at all without their help. We hope you, the community, will support our FFA agriculture program and help us keep our program alive and well.
This semester the Rangely Ag Ed program would like to extend a warm welcome to our student teacher, Jennifer Hill. Hill has been here since the first week back and will be here until the first week of May. She is learning the ways of an ag teacher and we as students want to say thank you for all that she has done and is doing.