FFA New Horizons

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FFA IN ACTION
Everybody likes to talk to Santa and the 1989-90 national officers all climbed on
his lap together in early December.
National Officers In Action
National Officers were together for
their first official training sessions at the
PTA Center in Alexandria, Virginia, in
early December.
A large part of their time was spent
learning about the operation of the na-
tional organization through departmental
briefings following a reception for them
to meet the entire staff. Also they met
with FFA Alumni, NVATA and the FFA
Found ion staff members.
Onl. 'sday, December 14. they were
invited to et with William Bennett's
staff to discL how FFA can help in the
fight against o. v This visit will likely
result in a public 1 statement from the
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national organization. It is one of the
national officers' top goals for '89-"90 to
be involved in drug abuse prevention.
Since they were near Washington, DC,
they also spent time with government and
agricultural leaders in the Capital including
Secretary of Agriculture Clayton
Yeutter and their congressmen.
Immediate past national secretary Jeff
Johnson from Florida was part of the
training team to give insights into plan-
ning their schedules, how to arrange for
things at home, and how to use their time
effectively.
The National Officers returned home
on Friday, December 15, after the FFA
Center Christmas luncheon.
Oklahoma
Fishy SOEP Story
Fins slicing through the dark water,
darting up and down, racing to the surface.
The water comes alive with movement
as one-thousand fish come to the top
of their cage to feed. No, this isn't a scene
from a cheap piranha movie. Instead of
piranha, they're catfish and this has been
the scene in two Perkins-Tryon, Oklahoma,
FFA members' ponds for the past
nine months.
Beginning in late April, Chad Collum
and Sherry Hielman began their FFA
chapter's first aquaculture project. Their
goal was to raise the catfish to weigh a
pound and a half each and harvest them in
the fall.
They started with two four-foot by
four-foot by eight-foot cages. Each cage
was surrounded by a pipe that was de-
signed to fioat the upper part of the cage.
The cages were then placed in both stu-
dents' ponds.
The next step was to stock the cages.
One-thousand catfish were placed in each
cage on April 14. For the next six months
Chad and Sherry fed and daily attended to
their very different project. As the leaves
fell and temperatures dropped the time to
harvest the fish drew near. Aided by ag
instructor Roger Jennings and several FFA
members, Chad and Sherry removed the
fish from their cages.
The fish were then shipped to Aqua
Farm Processing Plant in Holdenville,
Oklahoma, to be processed and packaged.
Chad and Sherry decided that instead
of selling the fish to a wholesaler they
would merchandise the fish locally in two
and a half pound packages. (Matt Brown,
Reporter)
Florida
Dog Gone Good Idea
Westridge Middle School FFA in Florida
is sponsoring puppies for Canine
Companions for Independence (CCI). At
this time there are over 40 canine compan-
ions being raised in the Central Florida
area of which a few are being raised by
WMS FFA members. The project is being
used as a BOAC project.
Canine Companions are special dogs
being groomed for special people. The
puppies will be raised until 18 months
locally. They will then receive six months
FFA New Horizons