Kicking Off National FFA Week With Tradition
National FFA Week is a week to celebrate the importance of FFA and its impact on American youth and agriculture. During this week, each state usually has days such as day of service and days to post memories like Memory Monday. Chapters around the nation may also celebrate by having events like pancake breakfasts for teachers, burger bashes for students’ lunches, and reading agriculture books to elementary students. Some chapters even host dress up days that consist of wearing a chapter shirt or dressing like an ag teacher.
To spice things up here at Taylor County High School (TCHS) in Florida, we go all out with dress up days. For this National FFA Week, we spiced things up with Farmers’ Day Off, (wear your PJs) Hunter’s Safety, (wear camo or orange), Anything but a Backpack Day, County vs. Country Club (dress as a cowboy or a golfer), and Hat Day.
Both Anything but a Backpack Day and Farmers’ Day Off are a tradition at TCHS; students go ALL OUT for Anything but a Backpack Day. Some examples of what they bring are shopping carts, tires, kayaks, baby strollers and power wheels. Doing these dress up activities encourages students to learn about FFA and get involved in the future of agriculture.
During this week, we also host a competition that gets our boys excited and involved. This is the dirtiest truck contest. For this competition, members must sign up to compete. On the list, they include their parking number and name, and during the first period a group of officers go out and judge who has the dirtiest vehicle. Participating in this competition gives members the ability to win a bucket of vehicle cleaning supplies and a feature on the morning announcements showing this proud achievement. Our past winner of this competition was Hinton Maulden, and he earned the title — his truck was covered in mud, dirt and weeds.
With all the participation in these activities and dress up days, FFA gets noticed by people in our small community. Once the days are over, one of our officers will post pictures of all the students dressed up and it gets the attention of community members. They get interested and wonder “What are they dressed up for?” and “What is National FFA Week?” and “Can I get my kids involved?” These are all things commented on posts with pictures from National FFA Week, and it makes FFA become a more widely known organization.
All in all, National FFA Week is a time to recognize the hard work and dedication members have to agriculture and the future of our food, fiber and fuel. The days that are hosted attract members and get them interested in becoming a member.
