Milbank FFA Chapter Elects New Officers

The Milbank FFA chapter held its annual awards banquet Thursday, May 12, where the 2016-2017 officers were elected.

Trevor Schmidt was selected as president for the 2016-2017 school year. Other officers selected were Kimberlly Aburto, vice president; Claire Mischel, secretary; Chase Pinkert, treasurer; Sarah Jarman, reporter; Nathan Loutsch, sentinel; Kadon Leddy, student advisor, and Andrew Falk, parliamentarian.

Top chapter awards were given to local FFA members. Tera Hanson received the Seize the Moment-Justin Maass Award. This award is voted on by Milbank FFA members for the person who represents enthusiasm and dedication to the chapter throughout the year. Tera was the 2015-2016 chapter parliamentarian, attended the National FFA Convention as a delegate, and was a member of the Floriculture team that will represent South Dakota at the National FFA Convention. Tera received a plaque and a $150 scholarship from the Lynn and Brenda Maass family.

The Extra Effort Award was presented to Kristine Fairchild. The award is given to a member who does activities and assists with FFA projects throughout the school year. Kristine was on the Milbank FFA Marketing team and kept notes during the meetings. She helped conduct FFA week activities and delivered flowers to the FFA week sponsors. She was the 2015-2016 student advisor.

Brianna Schreurs was named the FFA member of the year. The award is given to a member who is the most involved with the local FFA chapter. Brianna has been involved in numerous FFA activities all year. She was the 2015-2016 FFA secretary. She participated in the FFA Leadership and FFA Production Career Development events and was on the Milk Quality team. She helped younger members prepare for events, planned FFA week activities, sold fruit and attended the National FFA Convention as a member of the South Dakota Food Science team.

Receiving the Star Greenhand award was Sara Capp. The Greenhand award is the top award given to a first year FFA member. Sara was a junior FFA officer, attended the State FFA Leadership, was a member of the Agriculture Issues team and State FFA Convention as a member of the Milbank Food Science team. She also sold fruit and was involved in the FFA week activities.

Several additional awards were also given during the banquet. Trevor Schmidt received the Star Agricultural Placement award which is given to the member whose main supervised agriculture project is placement at an agricultural business/farm. Trevor’s placement site is at Schuneman Equipment Company. He has been involved in many of the FFA activities this year.

Will Mischel earned the Star Farmer award, give to a member whose supervised project is production based. Will has a farm production project on his family farm.

Kadon Leddy received the Monsanto Leadership Award for his outstanding record in Supervised Projects, FFA activities and classroom work.

Four students were presented with a leadership award. “This award is based on FFA members who stepped out of the box and tried different things and finished the project to the end,” explained FFA advisor Jerry Janisch. “Once started, they kept the group going.” Students earning the award were Kellie Christians, freshman; Tanner Kettwig, sophomore; Chase Pinkert, junior, and Tera Hanson, senior.

Four students were presented a scholarship based on grade point and taking part in the Agriculture Education course the entire school year. Those students were Kendra Schweer, freshman; Cassidy Voeltz, sophomore; Nathan Wiese, junior, and Dalton Koch, senior.

Certificates were also presented to members that placed at the State FFA Convention. The National FFA competing Floriculture team was recognized. Greenhand pins were awarded to first year members, and chapter FFA pins were given to senior year members.

Retiring their 2015-2016 offices were Chris Loutsch, president; Rebekah Tuchscherer, vice president; Brianna Schreurs, secretary; Kimberlly Aburto, reporter; Kadon Leddy, treasurer; Trevor Schmidt, sentinel; Kristine Fairchild, student advisor, and Tera Hanson, parliamentarian.

Seniors FFA members were Chris Loutsch, Rebekah Tuchscherer, Brianna Schreurs and Tera Hanson. They presented Mr. Jansich with a star named after him.