Growing up in Tranquillity, Calif., Janet (Silveira) Sutro’s childhood included helping her family raise crops — cotton, sugar beets and barley — and maintaining a large garden in the San Joaquin Valley. “I lived ‘farm to table’ long before that was a trend,” she says.
California FFA alumna Janet Sutro (left) serving as the 1972-73 Tranquillity FFA Chapter president.
In addition to serving as the 1972-73 Tranquillity FFA Chapter president, Sutro was elected as sectional treasurer. Since females had only recently gained full FFA membership in 1969, it’s plausible Sutro was among the first female FFA chapter presidents in her state.
“I loved everything about FFA,” she recalls. “I was on the meat judging team, raised sheep and learned how to speak in public. As an only child, I felt like FFA was a family.”
After graduating high school, Sutro’s agriculture teacher and advisor recommended her for a scholarship at Fresno State, where she completed a bachelor’s degree in plant science. Sutro is currently a landscape designer with a successful business that serves clients throughout the Southwestern United States.
Lost Forever, Found Together
As she was recently scrolling through social media one evening in her San Diego County home, Sutro received a message from a high school friend. His daughter had seen a Tranquillity FFA jacket for sale on the Urban Outfitters website, and the photo clearly showed a name: Janet Silveira. Other friends soon contacted Sutro about the jacket.
“I quickly went online and put the jacket in my cart,” she says. “When I clicked ‘buy,’ the message read ‘unavailable.’ Someone had purchased it right before me. I was just sick.”
It wasn’t the first time Sutro’s FFA jacket had vanished. “When my mother died in 2006, her friends helped clean out the house and donate her clothes,” she says. “My jacket disappeared along with other things I’d kept, so I thought I’d never see it again.”
The back of Sutro’s FFA jacket as it appeared in the Urban Outfitters online catalog.
Sutro contacted Urban Outfitters, hoping she could buy the jacket from whoever had purchased it. A representative told Sutro that vintage FFA jackets are highly prized in Japan, so she was puzzled that Sutro’s jacket was shipping to Fresno County, Calif. Sutro later found out that a friend had purchased the jacket with plans to give it to her as a surprise birthday gift.
“I was thrilled,” she says, reflecting on what it felt like to proudly slip on her jacket for the first time in 50 years. “It fit me like a glove.”
Since then, Sutro has reflected on her FFA experiences and hopes to connect with a local FFA chapter in the future.
“Young adults need mentors,” she says. “No matter where someone’s interests are, there are opportunities everywhere. We’re all one team in FFA, and maybe I can be helpful to another member in some way.”
Help Your Jacket Last
If you’re preparing to retire your FFA jacket, preserve it forever with this keepsake frame. Find additional FFA merchandise at ShopFFA.org.
