Bruins feasted on the successes of Bear River’s FFA chapter.

Bear River’s FFA Chapter hosted its annual end of the year awards banquet on Thursday, May 18, in the MPR.

Every year, the Chapter celebrates the year’s accomplishments with a tri-tip dinner and awards ceremony for its members and guests. The evening features scholarship presentations, Star member awards, and the reveal of the next year’s Chapter officer team.

“The end of the year awards banquet is a time for us to reflect on the year that we’ve had, and it’s really a time of celebration and memories and just everyone coming together to recognize those that have had successes in our chapter, hard times in our chapter, and we just show that we appreciate everyone and we’re just one big family in blue corduroy,” said senior Chapter Secretary Elizabeth Enke.

Organizing the event was a huge task for the officer team, and preparation starts months in advance. Chapter Adviser and Ag Science teacher Steve Paasch could attest to this struggle.

“We have start well ahead of time and figure out all the supplies and awards and medals and different certificates we’re going to give out and start doing applications for proficiencies and do our officer applications and resumes and then screen those and then interview the officers,” he said. “That’s several weeks ahead we have to start planning all this. Actually, ordering supplies several months ahead.”

Enke described the organization process that goes into the banquet planning.

“In our classroom, we have a checklist of everything that needs to done and accomplished for banquet to happen effectively, and so everyone is assigned a task off that list,” she said. “But sometimes people have other conflicts and other things they have going on in their lives and their schedules that kind of conflict with that, so that’s definitely a struggle, but it’s come together beautifully in the end.”

The banquet ran smoothly, aside from a small hiccup in the very beginning with the opening ceremonies, and proved that the hard work paid off.

“It came together really well, I’ve never been to one of these, I didn’t go to last year’s, so I think this year we put on a great production and everybody seems to love the food and to love the pictures that we’re providing, so I think it’s going to turn out really well and I’m excited,” said Katelyn Lorenzo, a freshman.

According to Mr. Paasch, the banquet had some very successful outcomes.

“I think there were some elements that were some of the best ever,” he said. “For example, I think we included every student that competed in any contest all year… and I don’t think we left anybody out.”

The banquet itself was a success, and in addition, many students were rewarded for their efforts in the FFA through scholarships and awards.

Enke and fellow senior Kalie Bisagno were awarded the prestigious Ghidotti Agriculture Scholarship.

“Well it’s a huge honor to receive that, I’m very fortunate for that,” Bisagno said. “I made my own business, called Sunny Oak Short Horns, so I show cattle, and raise cattle… I feel like I received it because I work hard.”

After awards were given and scholarships were awarded, the night ended with the announcing of the 2017-2018 Bear River Chapter officer team.

Officers go through many steps in order to be elected into a position. Initially, they submit an application and are interviewed by a committee. The committee slates the applicants into positions for the members of the chapter to then vote on.

“This year we changed it up,” said Mr. Paasch. “Instead of having speeches, we had them answer a series of questions. Try to level the playing field and that’s the way the California State Association is now doing their elections.”

Junior C.J. Paul was elected as chapter President, junior Catherine Renner as Vice President, junior Lauren Glomson as Secretary, junior Sam Nichols as Treasurer, sophomore Macey Borchert as Reporter, freshman Chandler Brown as Sentinel, freshman Savannah Rodriguez as Historian, and freshman Michaela Nichols as Parliamentarian.

The banquet ended along with the 2016-2017 FFA year, and members reflected on the successes of the past year.

“Well, being in FFA for all four years was really cool, and a super good experience,” said Bisagno. “This year in FFA, we had a State Champion team, the Ag Sales team, that was really exciting, and all of our other teams did really good.”

“All year we had a lot of kids put a lot of time into a lot of different competitions and work really really hard so we’re proud of all the kids all year,” Mr. Paasch said. “I’d say an exemplary shout out goes to the Ag Sales kids for really figuring that contest out and taking the initiative on their own more or less to really put together a great day down at that State Finals.”