By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Make no mistake about it, FFA is alive and well in Ohio. On May 5-6 the Ohio FFA Convention will be at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus.
Thousands of students clad in FFA blue and gold will converge for this 83rd state meeting. “We have 29,000 students from 330 chapters involved in FFA in Ohio,” said state FFA advisor Ike Kershaw. “Add to that total the 520 FFA teachers who will be in attendance.”

As it is in most states in the United States, regional competitions took place during the past few months, and the top students from each regional participate in state competition during the convention.

“The state convention is structured to recognize students’ accomplishments over the course of the year and we also recognize those involved with FFA over their past four years,” Kershaw said.

According to Kershaw, peak membership in Ohio FFA peaked in 1979 but the enrollment in the program this year is the highest since that year. “We’ll recognize the efforts of thousands of our FFA students at this year’s convention,” Kershaw said. “There will be a lot going on at this year’s two-day event.”

Indeed. In addition to many breakout session workshops involving leadership, and trade show exhibits, the convention will include agri-science fair judging and national chapter interviews.

This year’s event will showcase the finals in general livestock, poultry, equine, job interview and agriculture equine.

Proficiency awards will be given in the areas of wildlife production, veterinarian medicine, vegetable production, turf grass management, swine production and specialty crop production.

“The theme of Ohio FFA is Infinite Potential and there are so many categories for these FFA students to engage in nowadays,” Kershaw said.

Also showcased will be the finals in special animal production, fruit production, horticulture, equine sciences, small animal production and care, sheep production, outdoor recreation, organic agriculture, nursery operations, landscape management, grain operations, floriculture, fiber production, food science and technology, and forage production.

Winners of the FFA writing and poster contests will be awarded.
On Friday, May 6 special recognition will be given to the state’s top 10 chapters. This year’s top 10 (listed alphabetically) include Blanchester, Bowling Green, Edgewood-Butler Tech, Fayetteville, Felicity-Franklin, Miami East, Mississanawa Valley, Ridgemont, Versailles and Wauson.

Special recognition will be given to the top 10 student development chapters and the top 10 community development chapters. Special recognition will be given to the newest FFA chapters in Ohio.

Entertainment will be conducted by members of the Ohio FFA.
The Ohio FFA band and chorus will perform. Members of each unit are from various high schools throughout the state.

Keynote speakers will be on hand both days as well. “What’s special is we hold a career show with different companies in attendance,” Kershaw said. “They’ll be trying to attract students and teachers to their business. We’ll also have a lot of college and universities on hand and those schools will be trying to entice the students to attend their schools of agriculture.”

For more on the 83rd Ohio FFA State Convention, visit www.ohioffa.org