The Tri County FFA chapter was established in 1969. This year we currently have 52 members who take part in many leadership and community service activities. Our current FFA officer team includes: President Ashton Meints, Vice President Austin Zimmerman, Secretary Katie Jantzen, Treasurer Sheena Mahloch, Sentinel Megan Jiskra, Reporter Kyle Pohlmann, Parliamentarian Karen Jantzen, and Historian John Regier. Our adviser is Mr. Kurt Wissenburg.

Throughout the year many members take part in some type of leadership and community service opportunities. By doing these activities we not only help out our communities, but grow as individuals in our leadership skills.  Some examples are Career Development Events, Leadership Skills Events, trash pickup, community clean-up day, land judging, farm safety week, and competing at county and state fairs. Every year we attend state and national convention to gain more knowledge about FFA and the positive impact that it has on its members.

Our chapter tries to do many fundraisers during the year to help defray costs of some activities. Our main fundraiser that we have is fruit sales which are held in November. Some of the funds from this project are used to help with costs for students attending state convention. Other fundraisers include the sand volleyball tournament during the DeWitt Fourth of July Celebration and working concessions at
athletic events.

Our chapter is fortunate to have a FFA Alumni organization that helps fund many of our activities. They also support us by sharing their knowledge about FFA and agriculture.

The Tri County FFA also likes to have some fun activities for its members. They start out in the summer with a pool party which is open to students interested in FFA. At the beginning of the year we have a FFA lock-in where we use the community center for an evening.

The highlight of this year’s lock-in was the Farmer’s Olympics. Students were divided into teams and had different farm-related challenges to complete. The events included hauling buckets of soil, post driving, egg carrying, lassoing a steer, corn shelling, untying a series of knots, loading bales on a back of a pickup truck and rolling a tractor tire to the finish line.

Overall the Tri County FFA chapter remains very busy throughout the school year.