OLNEY, Ill. – FFA at the state level in Illinois was established on June 12, 1929. Within that year, three FFA chapters were chartered: Chicago High School for Agriculture Sciences FFA, Paxton-Buckley-Loda FFA in Paxton, and Olney FFA Chapter in Olney.

The Olney FFA Chapter, which now meets at Richland County High School (RCHS), claims rights to being the oldest FFA chapter in the state. The members of the RCHS FFA have their printed charter hanging on the wall of their ag classroom, with a start date of Oct. 14, 1929, proving it’s the “grandfather” of FFA chapters in Illinois.

“We even had a Corn Club here at the high school long before FFA got under way,” says Mark Steber, the RCHS FFA adviser who was also last year’s Golden Owl award winner.

Richland County High School has a student population of 4,500. There are 285 students in the school’s FFA chapter.

“Not much has changed here at RCHS. We’re situated in a rural setting of 16,000 in this county,” Steber said.

Getting the community involved is perhaps why this chapter has enjoyed a string of 96 consecutive years with no interruptions.

“We do several activities throughout the year to attract the lower-level students to FFA,” said sophomore and chapter reporter Emma Hefferman. “We offer a petting zoo each spring whereby FFA members bring their animals from their farm to the students.”

That day includes a mix of 500 elementary school students, 12 farm animals and a heaping amount of excitement. Two buses run at a time and transition between Richland County Elementary School and St. Joseph Catholic School.

“Each spring we perform a Day of Service targeting grades 2-5,” Hefferman said. “The younger kids get to visit our greenhouse, plant a seed and learn about the growing process and how to take care of that plant down the road.

“Our chapter also helps with the white squirrel count each year. We take pride in keeping these squirrels safe and hope to see the population increase. We perform a variety of community services.”

The chapter holds an alumni meeting each month. The current members give updates to the alumni, letting them know about their current activities.

“RCHS has the largest alumni (165) of FFA in Illinois,” Steber said. “One alum is my father, who was an FFA member at this school in 1955. He’s still alive and kickin.”

And the chapter’s new goal is to get a junior high FFA chapter established.

And while those in Olney are approaching their 100th anniversary, three new FFA chapters have emerged in the state in the past year.

Two new junior high FFA chapters were installed last fall. Bureau Valley Middle School in Manlius and Cambridge Middle School in Cambridge are first-year startups.

Slated to open its doors to FFA this fall is Winnebago High School in Winnebago, Ill.

Gwen Heimerdinger will be Winnebago’s FFA ag teacher and adviser. No better first-year teacher than Heimerdinger, who was raised on a large black Angus farm and tended to hundreds of acres of crops.

“People of this community approached the school board and said they wanted FFA for their kids,” Heimerdinger said. “This new chapter is community-led and community-supported.”

There are 2,875 people living in Winnebago. There are 425 students at Winnebago High School and 75 those have made plans to join the new FFA chapter in the fall.

“Winnebago is an agricultural community,” Heimerdinger said. “Agriculture is the backbone of this community and I’m tickled pink that there’s already 75 enrolled to participate in our new chapter.”

In the fall, Heimerdinger will teach three Introductory to Agriculture classes, one Ag Leadership class and one Ag Science class.

“There are some kids entering FFA who are not from the farm, yet they’re willing to take a risk at studying agriculture,” she said. “Perhaps they heard about it from someone down the line because there’s lots of ag programs (at other schools) in this area.”