By Rebecca Chandler, Cambridge FFA Reporter
On Tuesday, April 20th, the Cambridge FFA chapter held their annual banquet. There was a great turnout with around 185 guests and FFA members. At the beginning the 2019/2020 chapter officers were introduced and they did their opening ceremonies. After that, our chapter President, Nathan Kindall, gave thanks to all of the community members and supporters for making everything that our chapter does possible, then we enjoyed our delicious meal. The meal was prepared by our local specialists: Seonaid Uebelhardt, Cindy Jones, and Susan Crisp. The meal was served by many of our young future FFA members: Briggs Papineau (3rd) Ridge Loveland (5th), MacKee Nichols (5th), Jack Papineau (5th), Lola Warren (6th), Asher Harley (7th), Wyatt Moura (7th), Quinn Hoskins (7th), Hailey Kindall (7th), Addi Mckee-Barton (7th), Sammy Gressley (7th), Eli Noah (7th), Jace Waggoner (7th), Elias DeVries (7th).
Following dinner the Chapter announced our special guests (Anothony Butler, Kaitlyn Butler, Pam Schwenkfelder, and Christy Corroco) and gave out our blue and gold awards. These plagues were awarded to Loveland’s General Store, Farmers Supply Coop., Cambridge Lumber, Simplot Grower Solutions, Harvey and Chris Braun, John and Mary Eagle, Seid Ranch, Royce and Pam Schwenkfelder, Bob and Rhea Lanting, and Seonaid Uebelhardt.
After giving thanks to the kids who helped serve the meal, we started with giving out Chapter Awards. These included Discovery Degrees (Emma McKee-Barton, Skylar George, Haven Harley, Hunter Hastie, Jace Mink, Camren Morgan, Brigham Mundell, Alex Robbins, Cloe Russell, McKenzie Sprague and Shawn Snedaker, Stella Warren ) Greenhand Degrees (Becca Chandler, Kylee Doughtery, Kalub DuBose, Heath Fortin, Madison Gerlock, Tyler Gressley, Cayden Keller, Luke McHenry, Adam Miller, Zane Nichols, Russell Noah, Abbey Uebelhoer, Noah Uebelhoer, Ricky VanMeer) Chapter Degrees (Boe Conway- Lee, Alan Damon, Blake Damon) and State Degree recipients (Emma Hollon, Boden Meyer, Jarret Mink). The star greenhand was given to Zane Nichols and the Idaho State Star Farmer Award was announced again to recognize Jarret Mink.
After the chapter awards was the CDE recognition of all the teams from Cambridge FFA that competed this year. These teams included Greenhand Knowledge, Creed Speaking, Soil and Land Evaluation, Rangeland Assessment, Floriculture, Job Interview, Code of Conduct & Parliamentary Procedure, Food science, Dairy Cattle Judging, and Ag Sales. We also recognized our Western Idaho District 2020-2021 Officer Team Members, Katie Russell and Zoe Ertel.
After Chapter awards were distributed, we then announced and congratulated all of the FFA members who won a Cambridge FFA Proficiency award. These awards were given to students who have developed specialized skills that they can later apply towards their future careers. Agricultural Processing – Nathan Kindall, Agricultural Sales Placement – Rikki VanMeer, Agricultural Service – Boden Meyer, Beef Production Entrepreneurship – Jarret Mink, Beef Production Placement – Russell Noah, Diversified Crop Production Placement – Zane Nichols, Goat Production – Boe Conway-Lee, Home and/or Community Development -McKensi Busch, Poultry Production – Emma Hollon, Swine Production – Zoe Ertel & Brendan Wood.
Zane Nichols helped recognize all of the parents of our senior FFA members. Once all of the parents had returned to their seats, the Honorary Chapter Degree was awarded to Jen Vanmeer.
Mrs. Nichols and Mrs. Mink recognized all 13 seniors and presented them with their FFA cords for graduation. In addition the advisors presented Russell Noah with the Outstanding Freshman FFA Award and Jarret Mink, Nathan Kindall, Zoe Ertel, Brendan Wood and Katie Russell with the Outstanding Senior FFA Award.
Cambridge FFA Alumni President Cindy Wood talked about the role of the Cambridge FFA Alumni in all the activities and successes of the Cambridge FFA. She encouraged members to join the Cambridge FFA Alumni and to get active in all their events. Cindy also was given the Distinguished Service Award, for going above and beyond in helping and contributing to the Cambridge FFA chapter. Soon after, Adam Papineau came to the stage to give his Alumni Scholarship Presentation, and then the winners of the Holly Noah FFA Memorial scholarship and the Reed Thulander FFA Memorial scholarship were announced and brought to the stage. Eight seniors were recognized for multiple scholarship awards for a total of $9400.
Lastly after the scholarships, the 2020/2021 Cambridge FFA announced their new chapter officers. Congrats to President Zane Nichols, Vice President Russell Noah, Secretary Kylee Dougherty Treasure Luke McHenry, Reporter Rebecca Chandler, Historian Ricky Vanmeer, and Sentinel Alan Damon.
At the very end the 2020/2021 officer team gave closing ceremonies to bring an end to an amazing night.Thank-you to everyone who attended or helped with making this event possible. Special thanks to Roy Braun for taking pictures of the event and for everyone that helped to make the evening run smoothly.
