by HANNAH CLAYTON, Polk County FFA Federation Officer
December was a busy month for many Polk County FFA members! From the many different Career Development Events that have been held to prepare for the Polk County Youth Fair, FFA members are not shy about working hard.
We started the month on December 3 with several students participating in the Agricultural Education Career Development Event. Those competing had to present their lesson plans to a mini-class and judges, just as an agricultural educator would. On December 13, we held the sub-district leadership and career development competitions where many different speaking contests were hosted at Ridge and Traviss Technical College. These events included parliamentary procedure, which is how to efficiently run a business meeting, extemporaneous speaking, prepared public speaking that can consist of a variety of different topics chosen by the FFA members, FFA Creed speaking, tractor driving, and middle school opening and closing ceremonies.
Many of the speaking competitions allow FFA members to learn how to speak confidently in front of people and in a professional setting. For each of these events, FFA members have spent months preparing in hopes to win first place at the sub-district level. Only those placing first at the sub-district level will move on to the district level of competition.
George Jenkins High School competed on December 15 in Perry at the state Forestry Career Development Event. Earning second place in the state, the team consisted of two seniors, Taylor Talton and Aiden Comisky; two sophomores, Bella Overbaugh and Jody Witter; and their advisor, Kyle Carlton, who had been working hard to study forestry since the start of the school year.
Not only do we have a lot of CDEs going on this month but we also have a lot of preparation for the Polk County Youth Fair as well. The fair will be held from January 21-27 at 1702 Highway 17 South in Bartow. Additional information can be found on the website at www.pcyf.net. Everything from livestock shows and family and consumer sciences events will be showcased. Take an afternoon and come and check it out!