Awards and honors at FFA banquet

FALLS VILLAGE — On Friday, Nov. 14, the FFA Parent/Member Banquet was held at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. It was the 75th year for the event.

More than 300 parents, students and community members attended; catering was arranged by Theresa Freund of Freund’s Farm in North Canaan. The farm has catered the banquet for more than 10 years.

The awards segment of the ceremony was held in the auditorium, where 21 proficiency awards were distributed to students who have excelled in their Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) programs.

In addition, 49 members of the chapter received their Greenhand Degrees, while 35 achieved Chapter Degrees.

Members awarded special citations to Deron Bayer, Joseph Brennan, John Jacquier, Liam O’Reilly, Peter Piccone  and Robert Wheeler for their contributions and assistance to the chapter; and one honorary membership was awarded to Paul Herrington, who is an advisory member and a Farm Credit representative from New York.

This year, FFA Officers Shelby Jacquier, Hayley Wilkinson and Kevin Massey went to the National Convention in Louisville, Ky. The event took place from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 and the theme was “Go All Out.”

There, the officers represented the chapter and received the three-star chapter award for the work in the area of student, chapter and community development throughout the year. This put the Housatonic Valley FFA Chapter in the top 3 percent in the country.

Samuel Bradway competed at the convention for the Public Speaking Career Development Event. At the banquet he said, “I have driven a tractor once — for five minutes — in a life skills class. I was not, and am not, the typical FFA member — so I was more shocked than anyone when my Prepared Public Speaking CDE took me from chapters to districts to states and then, for reasons I still cannot comprehend, to the national level.” He competed against 45 other participants from around the United States and received a bronze emblem.

Next year, the Nursery Landscaping CDE team will be competing at nationals. The team consists of Blake Buckley, Ted Perotti, Alex Fredenburg and Nick Winsser.

The chapter hopes to send as many other FFA members as possible to nationals next year, in addition to the nursery landscape team. Members have a variety of ways to earn this opportunity: through experiences such as CDEs, agriscience fairs, chapter leadership development, national chapter applications, participating in Washington Leadership Conferences, state booths and more.

State Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64), state FFA President Danny Quinn and Cricket Jacquier also addressed the audience and FFA members.

The Housatonic Valley FFA Chapter banquet is one of the earliest held in the state. When speaking to Danny Quinn, advisor David Moran explained that, “It’s tradition.”

Molly Benack, recipient of the Star Greenhand Award, said, “I don’t know how students could choose to miss the banquet, it is one of the greatest feelings to receive a degree and to know you are surrounded by people who wish to make the world a better place. It inspires me to be a better person myself.”

Mari Cullerton is this year’s Housatonic FFA reporter.