Growing Leaders - Career Success
Chair: Aubrey Odens
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Wahpeton FFA Member SAE Promotion Each Month: This will entail selecting a member of our chapter with an established SAE Program and publishing photos of the student actively engaged in their SAEP. Along with this, a summary detailing how long the student has had the program in place, which proficiency award area it fits into, and what the student's goal is for expanding or growing their program. The primary objective of this endeavor is to promote the SAE aspect of our Ag Education Program and reaffirm that the three circles of Agricultural Education are of the utmost importance for a well rounded, strong program.
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Growing Leaders - Healthy Lifestyle
Chair: Aubrey Odens
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Substance Abuse Posters: The week of March 17-23, 2026 members of our chapter will make posters promoting National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week. The week involves communities, schools, and health professionals hosting educational events to highlight the risks of substance use and the importance of prevention and recovery. Unfortunately, substance abuse is a growing concern in our community, and sadly has touched the lives of some of our chapter's members. By having the Wahpeton FFA take part in this awareness effort, we aim to support our effected members with a family member suffering from this terrible disease. More importantly, we want those effected to know that our organization is a place where they can belong, participate, and thrive in a safe environment full of encouragement and positive fellowship.
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Growing Leaders - Leadership
Chair: Boedy Miller
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Wahpeton FFA Officer Retreat, July 25-27, 2025: The annual FFA Officer Retreat is an opportunity for the coming year's officer team to come together and plan events, team-build, and plot the course for the year. The officers work to identify programs or activities from the previous year that went well and should be continued, along with those that did not turn out as anticipated, and could be modified or eliminated. For new officers it provides a chance to interact with the veteran officers on the team and draw from their experiences to begin their own leadership journeys.
ND FFA Fall Leadership Conferences, September 27-28, 2025: Each year our chapter sends members to the 101, Blue, and Gold Conferences without fail. This year, we had two senior officers who have goals of becoming ND State FFA Officers, and applied for the Aspire Conference, and were BOTH accepted. Continued participation in these leadership conferences is paying dividends to our chapter with the excitement and ideas that each member attending has upon returning home.
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Growing Leaders - Personal Growth
Chair: Dawson Miller
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AET Data Entry Deadline of January 20th: The FFA Degree ladder that each member climbs is a significant contributing factor to their personal growth, and hopefully future career success. By setting a firm deadline for data entry, it will allow our members to complete applications in a timely fashion for potential ND State FFA Degrees and American FFA Degrees, along with the Star Award portions for students that are so qualified. Furthermore, this deadline will streamline the process for members to complete proficiency applications so they may receive the awards and recognition many of them deserve.
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Growing Leaders - Scholarship
Chair: Marisa Mumm
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Annual Wahpeton FFA Banquet, March 26, 2026: The banquet brings together community members, business leaders, and alumni. This provides an opportunity for chapters to connect with potential scholarship sponsors, showcasing how their support helps "grow leaders" and funds educational opportunities for students.
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Building Communities - Citizenship
Chair: Marisa Mumm
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Food Bags: This is a project tailored after one of the service projects members of our FFA Officer team took part in while at the Washington Leadership Conference. The objective would be to put together "food bags or baskets" that had a "theme." For example, one theme could be nutritious after school snacks and those bags or baskets could be provided to underprivileged families in our school district. Another theme that has been considered is "breakfast, the most important meal of the day," with the focus being high protein items such as granola bars, oatmeal, yogurt cups, etc. Once again, these bags or baskets would be given to underprivileged families in our school district. Another alternative that will be explored is preparing these packages, and giving them to our local food pantry for distribution to those in need, which could potentially reach beyond the Wahpeton School District.
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Building Communities - Economic Development
Chair: Cheyenne Kostuck
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Inaugural Battle of the Butcher Shops: During the Introduction to Agriculture-9 students' Food Science and Processing Unit, students will secure spice packages from each of the butcher shops in our community. Spice packages for both summer sausage and pepper sticks will be utilized. Upon procurement of these, classes will measure out, batch, mix, stuff, and smoke each product. Upon finishing the products, each one will assigned a letter. Ballots will be generated, and the students will then conduct a taste test of each product, ranking them 1-2-3. Rankings will be tabulated, and the lowest score will deemed the winner of the inaugural event. Pictures of the products, students engaged in the processes, and results of the vote will be posted on the Wahpeton FFA Chapter's Facebook page.
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Building Communities - Environmental
Chair: Boedy Miller
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Mooreton Pond Underwater Structures: This project was actually launched by last year's Wahpeton FFA President, Owen Skovolt. Due to the time needed to establish permitting requirements and secure them, this has become a two year endeavor. This year's plan is to advertise prior to the Christmas Holiday season that our FFA Chapter would like to pick up as many discarded natural (real) Christmas trees as possible after the holiday season. One thought has been to actually partner with the local boy scouts who are the primary seller of natural trees in our community, and provide them with a flyer to give to each customer making a purchase, so they may contact us directly for the pickup and proper disposal of their tree. This would be a tremendous aid to the efforts of securing enough trees to modify and enhance the underwater structure in Mooreton Pond that would promote greater reproductive success and survival of the non-predatory fish species in the pond. This would lead to increased harvest rates for anglers in the future.
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Building Communities - Human Resources
Chair: Dawson Miller
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Snacks for Seeds, September 2, 2025: This activity is aimed at pooling our resources at the chapter level to pack lunches for area farmers, especially their truck drivers during the busy harvest season. With the MinnDak Farmer's Sugar Beet Cooperative beginning their 2025 pre-pile on September 1, there will be a great number of trucks on the road, delivering beets to the factory to launch the facility's startup and processing of the 2025 crop. Additionally, there is also a line of trucks at Cargill and Masonite, and packing nutritious lunches for some of those drivers to enjoy is our chapter's way of saying thank you for all you do to help stimulate our area's farm economy, and more importantly, doing so SAFELY.
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Building Communities - Stakeholder Engagement
Chair: Haylee Hauschild
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Soil Conservation District Banquet Set Up: This event takes place annually sometime in April. Chapter members help with this event by setting up all of the tables and chairs for the banquet per instructions from the SCD staff. After the event, students return to the Community Center to assist with the clean up, tear down, and storage of the tables and chairs. This is a partnership that has been established for the last several years and will continue.
Twin Towns Lion's Club Partnership: The local Lion's Club in our community is unique in the fact that it includes members from two states, as we are a "twin town," community with Breckenridge, MN being right across the river. For years the Lion's Club hosted a waffle breakfast which served as one of it's primary fundraisers. Due to difficulty getting workers to host the event, it was eventually discontinued, and alternative fundraisers have been conducted, admittedly with less success. We fast forward to the fall of 2025, and our chapter is forging a partnership with the Lion's Club to assist them with reviving a major fundraiser, such as their waffle breakfast. However, after consulting with club members, they actually threw out the suggestion of a corn feed next fall, perhaps prior to the start of the school year. This partnership would go so far as to include a student growing the sweet corn for their SAE program, the club purchasing said corn from the student, and the FFA Chapter serving as the workforce to host and conduct the event.
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Strengthening Agriculture - Agricultural Advocacy
Chair: Haylee Hauschild
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NDSCS Homecoming Parade, October 4, 2025: Each year the Wahpeton FFA Chapter has an entry in this parade. It is an outstanding way to promote agricultural education and the FFA organization to a large, diverse audience that potentially would not hear about either one. Members taking part in the parade wear FFA apparel and either walk along the route or ride on or in that year's entry, and of course, throw out candy for all of the hopefully, future FFA members.
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Strengthening Agriculture - Agricultural Literacy
Chair: Boedy Miller
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Food for America/Collaboration with Riverview Dairy: For the last several years, our FFA Chapter has conducted activities in the elementary school during National FFA Week. The focus each year is on dairy products, with activities ranging from making ice cream, to tasting different cheeses, to identifying "real" dairy products versus "artificial" ones. The in class activities are followed by a field trip to Riverview Dairy, in Campbell, MN where the elementary students are accompanied by their teachers along with some parents, and high school age FFA members. At the dairy the students receive a comprehensive tour from the feed supplies all the way to the waste (manure) management systems. In between, they are able to see the loafing barns, are able to observe actual milking taking place, and finally, see where the milk is stored and how it is loaded out. It is an outstanding way to show them the true pathway from "field to table," or in this case from the "cow to the table."
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Strengthening Agriculture - Chapter Recruitment
Chair: Hudson Miller
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Wahpeton FFA and FFA Alumni Tailgate Party, August 29, 2025: For the last several years, our FFA Chapter has joined forces with our local FFA Alumni Chapter to host a tailgate party at Wahpeton's first home football game of the season. The menu is typically burger, hot dogs, chips, beans, and cookies, served along with lemonade and water for refreshments. This year's event featured locally raised beef from a producer in the McLeod, ND area and signage was posted on every table promoting that fact. Doing so led to a number of attendees contacting our FFA Advisor, Mr. Thiel, to get the producer's contact information so they could purchase beef from him. We also receive support for this event from a former Wahpeton FFA President, and his Country Financial investment office. The primary objective is to kick off the year with an event that enables the students to work together, collaborate with our alumni, and be in the community spotlight setting up, serving, cleaning up and most importantly, promoting the Wahpeton FFA Chapter in a positive light.
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Strengthening Agriculture - Safety
Chair: Boedy Miller
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Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby Car Construction: This is most likely the second longest standing activity our chapter conducts without fail every year. People close to the program estimate this endeavor has been conducted in the Wahpeton Ag Education facility for somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years. Each year, chapter officers and our advisors coordinate workable dates with troop leaders to have all of the necessary shop equipment available, along with some helping hands of experienced FFA members to assist the youngsters, and again, hopefully future members, construct the fastest, most stylish pinewood derby car. In addition to helping the scouts out with their project, the chapter also provides snacks and refreshments for all who attend.
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Strengthening Agriculture - Support Group
Chair: Cheyenne Kostuck
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Zoo Boo: The Wahpeton FFA Chapter has been an integral partner of the Chahinkapa Zoo for nearly 30 years on their Annual Zoo Boo event. The chapter's involvement has included purchasing, carving, and delivering right around 200 pumpkins each year. In addition to this, the pulp and seed from each pumpkin are saved, packaged, and delivered right along with the jack-o-lanterns, and are utilized as a food source for some of the animals. Consequently, after the event, the carved pumpkins are utilized the same. The day of the event, our chapter also has a table on the path and hands out an ag related product to each of the trick or treaters. Each year we make an effort to have something different, and treats have ranged from honey sticks, to granola, popcorn, or Rice Krispie treats. Students and advisors working the event fully participate by dressing up in a Halloween costume.
Alumni Bowling Event: The Wahpeton FFA Alumni is an amazing supporter of our local FFA Chapter. We cannot begin to emphasize how fortunate we are for their dedicated support of our organization. Each year they host a bowling outing for our members, and it gives the students the opportunity to network with Alumni supporters and personally say thank you for all that they do for our chapter. The Alumni's intent for this event is to utilize it as a recruitment tool for our FFA Chapter and ultimately get to know our members on a personal level.
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