Students prep for FFA National Convention

FALLS VILLAGE — Housatonic Valley FFA students are gearing up to head to the 98th annual National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, Oct. 29 to Nov. 1.

This year, students are preparing to take on the landscape, horse judging, creed speaking and extemporaneous competitions.

Creed speaking involves memorizing and reciting all five paragraphs of the FFA Creed (by E.M. Tiffany).

Contestants are judged on how well and uniquely the creed is presented, and the judges question the speaker on aspects of the creed.

For extemporaneous speaking, the student is given a topic relating to agriculture and has 30 minutes to prepare before answering questions from the judges.

Riley Mahaffey will be taking on her third year of public speaking at the national level.

The landscape team consists of Madeline Collingwood, Michael Gawel, Hayden Bell and Byron Bell. The competition will include plant identification, a written exam, landscape practicums and a team event.

The equine judging team consists of Madison Melino, Darwin Wolfe, Hannah Johnson and Kellie Eisermann. The competitions will include a general knowledge test, judging horses in halter classes and under saddle, oral questions and a team event to wrap it all up.

Zayre Trail is advancing to the national level to represent the Housatonic Valley FFA chapter as the creed speaker.

Kellie Eisermann is the FFA Reporter this year She is a junior and lives in Lakeville and plans to go into the family business, Four Seasons Pool Service in Millerton.