It was a busy 2023 for the Randolph FFA, and 2024 will continue to keep the group busy learning and serving! . Some highlights from 2023 include the FFA food stand that we brought to different locations with the Minnesota Corn and Soybean Growers Association, leadership camps, the Children’s Barnyard at the Dakota County Fair. Randolph also placed as Reserve Champion Overall Market and Breeding Livestock exhibitors at the Minnesota State Fair. With the start of the new school year came the start of our monthly all chapter meetings and outreach classes. New to this year, our officer team has come up with a new plan to get more members to attend this class by having guest speakers give a different lesson for the night. Some potential topics are corn/biodiesel, floral design, and dairy production. In October, our chapter raised $17,100 for our annual Corn Drive for Camp Courage. A big thank you to everyone who donated for this cause. In November, we sent eight members to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. While there they toured Fair Oaks Farm, attended several sessions, went to the rodeo, and explored career options in the college and career fair. This year for fruit sales we sold over 4000 items around the community. Also, with the help of members and alumni, we seamlessly unloaded a semi-load of fruit and two trucks, organized everything and sent it all out without any hiccups. In December, our General Livestock Evaluation team placed third overall at the National Western Roundup in Denver, Colorado (team members included: Katie Radman, Ella Hegland, Maria Hegland, and Wyatt Herman). Looking forward, we have a few Career Development Experiences and Leadership Development Experiences being sent to the Minnesota State FFA Convention in April. For CDEs, our General Livestock and Dairy Evaluation teams qualified for state, as well as Mattea Quigley and Jaelyn Holz qualifying individually for Dairy Handling. For LDEs, Gradyn Taylor and Max Kuhn are going for the Creed Speaking contest so far. What a tremendous few months! We hope to make the next ones even better.
