Oley Valley summer FFA program keeps students learning

During the summer, Oley Valley Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter does its best to keep members involved and create opportunities for new members. The new members can make new friends and get a feel for the Ag department. FFA work days were a great way to keep members occupied and to accomplish some summer cleaning and organizing of the Ag classrooms. It offers community service hours and free lunch. They were held Mondays and Wednesdays starting June 7 through August 16. The officers could come and do their officer work, while others helped to feed the fish, weed the gardens and flowerbeds, harvest vegetables from the raised bed gardens, clean the duck pen and other tasks around the school. All of the vegetables picked were donated to the Oley Valley Food Bank.

During the work days students also put together two display boards. One was titled “To Have a Full Plate, Bees Must Pollinate,” and it discussed the importance of bees. The second board was about the awareness of wildfire and was titled, “Burning Up Over Wildfires.” Many members helped to design and decorate the boards. Both boards were entered in the Kutztown and Allentown fairs and both received first-place awards. A few members took trips to both fairs to help set up and clean up the displays. Members also entered potatoes, flowers, a hardscape display, a pallet display board and decorated aquariums for the Allentown Fair. The FFA students also entered their Pekin duck’s eggs, (the duck is like the mascot of the FFA chapter) and they received first-place and best-in-show awards. The chapter received first place overall as a chapter at the Allentown Fair because of how many entries it had and how well everyone placed. Many members participated every week. The work days and local fairs helped to keep everyone active in FFA over the summer when not many meetings or events were taking place compared to during the school year.