The FFA organization does a lot during the school months, but most of their projects happen in the second semester. During the first semester, only two events were going on in the FFA, which were the fruit sales and soil competitions. The second semester consists of strawberry sales, FFA week for the students, the rest of the judging competitions, and plant sales.
The strawberry sales are done the same way as the fruit sales in the fall. So much goes into consideration when it comes to these sales. Mrs.Brunton, the ag teacher at Potosi High School, has to make order forms online and on paper, encourage the students to go out and sell, and also make posts online to encourage the community to buy even if a student does not reach out to them. After the orders come in, Brunton and a couple of students sit down and tally everything up to be able to get a final order form complete and sent to the supplier. Finally, when the orders come in, students along with Brunton sort out the orders into their original order forms and help students take them to the community members that they sold to.
FFA week is a major event that a lot of students in Potosi High School look forward to every spring. Most of the high school students are in FFA and get to participate in many fun competitions throughout the week. Some of the major ones that get students involved are the milk chugging, hay bale toss, and pie-eating competitions. Although many activities go on during that week, there are also dress-up days and driving your tractor to school day that are very popular as well in our small community.
During the spring semester, almost all of the judging competitions that Potosi takes part in are competed. The judging contests consist of junior dairy cattle, livestock, wildlife, floriculture, and horses. Most of the FFA members participate in these events and spend countless days practicing and studying to win the state competitions. Brunton will start group studies in her room the first week of the second semester to be able to get the kids that are just starting and refresh the memory of returning judges, to be prepared for state competition in March.
Lastly, but the most important one for Brunton, is the Plant Sale. Brunton started working on the plant sale in December and has already ordered plants, pots, and baskets. During the second semester, Brunton teaches a greenhouse management class, which consists of the students learning how to care for the plants and grow them to sell for profit for the FFA. The plant sale normally takes place around Mother's Day, but Brunton says, “I do not have a date picked out yet because of taking the soils team to nationals the first week of May, and then having graduation the 17th. I have just not decided yet on when would be the best time to do it”.
Even though all of these events are in the spring semester, there is one team that carries over from the fall semester. The one is the soils team who will be competing in Oklahoma at the beginning of May. Brunton is very excited to continue to do these events with the students and community this semester and looks forward to all of the fun that comes along with it.