Forming a Well-Rounded FFA Chapter
Being a finalist in any National Chapter Award category is something to celebrate. But the celebration is even bigger when a chapter is a finalist in all four National Chapter Award categories in a single year. Only three chapters have ever accomplished this feat: Ridgemont FFA, in Ohio, in 2012; Brooksville Senior FFA, in Florida, in 2013 and Edmond FFA, in Oklahoma, in 2023.
Rick Ahrens, a retired FFA advisor who served as Brooksville Senior FFA advisor for 33 years before retiring in 2022, was responsible for facilitating his chapter’s well-rounded success. When Brooksville Senior FFA had its historic year, it was a Model of Innovation finalist for student development, chapter development and community development (now the Premier Chapter Awards), as well as a finalist in the Model of Excellence category.
Ahrens says most chapter activities were inspired by someone an FFA member knew personally. “I’m a big believer in ‘Find a need and fill a need’,” he says. In 2013, for example, they gave a presentation to elementary students about snacks that promote good dental health because one student’s mother worked in a dentist’s office and was talking about how snacks were hurting kids’ teeth. “I would try to find one or two kids who were gung-ho about the project and put them in charge,” Ahrens says. “They could sell it to other members better than I could.”
The Brooksville Senior FFA Chapter also looked for creative ways to solve problems they identified. Because many members were active in the county fair and their community was small, they realized students were sending letters to the same businesses seeking financial support, overwhelming the owners. In 2013, they decided to create a poster with a QR code that linked to a website the students developed, which included videos and photos of students car-ing for their animals. “It was hugely successful, and the kids made record prices that year on their projects,” Ahrens says.
The chapter also spent time developing community relationships and made smart use of donations. In 2013, someone donated a pile of scrap walnut and oak wood, which inspired the chapter to make clipboards from the wood and launch a “Clip Cancer” campaign to raise money for the American Cancer Society.
Ahrens also attributes their success to being flexible and remaining open to new ideas. The chapter would hold an officer’s retreat at the beginning of each school year to plan activities for the year, but Ahrens viewed this as only a road map. “There were times we did everything, and other times we didn’t because other things came up,” he says. “We never thought we had to do an activity because it could win us an award. It was about meeting the needs of the students, chapter and community — and then the awards kind of fell into place.”
