shop online at www.missourivalleyshopper.com Schuurmans Farm Supply Residential • Commercial • Lawn Equipment Proud to Support Our Future Farmers! 5 miles West of Tyndall on Hwy. 50 Corner of Hwys. 50 and 37 www.schuurmansfarmsupply.com February 21, 2017 • Page 10 FFA Makes a Difference in the Lives of Students Proud to Support FFA Ryan Loecker 402-388-4772 1201 West 2nd St. Crofton, NE 1-800-535-3378 South Dakota FFA State Officers 406 W. Hwy 50, Tyndall, SD 605-589-3441 www.tyndallmotors.com Nebraska FFA State Officers Left to Right: Alison Simon, Gettysburg State Vice President; Kaitlyn Schmichel, Tri-Valley State Vice President; Logan Hoffman, Bridgewater-Emery State Secretary; Andrew Streff, McCook Central State Treasurer; Jaclynn Knutson, Viborg-Hurley State Reporter; and Sydnie Peters Winner State Sentinel Left to Right: Kaitlyn Hanvey, State President, Verdigre FFA Chapter; Manuel Acosta, State Vice President, Bayard FFA Chapter; Cheyenne Gerlach, State Vice President Tri-County FFA Chapter; Nic Taylor, State Secretary, Logan View FFA Chapter; Christy Cooper, State Vice President, Waverly FFA Chapter; Collin Swedberg, State Vice President Wallace FFA Chapter and Halle Ramsey, State Vice President Ord FFA Chapter History of the FFA The roots of FFA originate from a time when boys were losing interest and leaving the farm. Walter S. Newman, who in September 1925 became the Virginia State Supervisor of Agricultural Education, sought a solution to the problem with Edmund C. MaGill, Harry W. Sanders and Henry C. Groseclose, staff members of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute Agricultural Education Department. Newman proposed forming an organization that offered farm boys "a greater opportunity for self-expression and for the development of leadership. In this way they will develop confidence in their own ability and pride in the fact that they are farm boys." Groseclose immediately began work on a constitution and bylaws for the new organization, and J.O. Hoge later suggested a name: Future Farmers of Virginia. The idea was presented during an annual vocational rally in the state in April 1926, where it was met positively. The Future Farmers of Virginia was born. Two years later, the idea reached the national stage during the American Royal Livestock Show in Kansas City, Mo. That's when 33 young students from 18 states gathered at the Hotel Baltimore to establish the Future Farmers of America. The group elected Leslie Applegate of Freehold, N.J., as its first president and adopted the national emblem – a mark similar to that of the original Virginia emblem – during the new organization's first convention. In 1929, national blue and corn gold became the official colors of FFA. A year later, delegates adopted the official FFA Creed and by 1933 the familiar Official Dress of blue corduroy jackets was adopted after convention delegates were enthralled by the jackets worn to Kansas City by members of the Fredericktown, Ohio, FFA chapter. In 1928, 33 students from 18 states gathered in Kansas City, Mo., to form the Future Farmers of America The New Farmers of America Less than a decade after the formation of the Future Farmers of America in 1928, a national organization for African-American boys interested in agriculture formed in Tuskegee, Ala. The New Farmers of America was modeled after another Virginia organization – the New Farmers of Virginia – and began in 1935. The New Farmers of Virginia was instrumentally started by G.W. Owens and J.R. Thomas, teacher-educators in agricultural education at Virginia State College, and Dr. H.O. Sargent, a federal agricultural education official who later proposed NFA. The NFA and FFA shared common beliefs. The NFA Creed had six paragraphs, each beginning with "I believe," and its emblem featured only one stylistic difference: an outline in the shape of a cotton boll instead of an ear of corn. A total of 13 states received NFA charters, and by 1965 the NFA and FFA consolidated in recognition of shared missions for agricultural education. In 1974, Texas' Fred McClure became the first African-American national FFA officer, and in 1994 Chicago's Corey Flournoy became the first African-American national FFA president. Official Dress of blue corduroy jackets adopted after the convention. 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