FFA Inside the Emblem: Sun Prairie East

Sun Prairie East FFA members — Emily Sydow (front, from left), Lydia Statz, Marley Walters and Jackson Nesbit; (back, from left) Daniel Reid, Jorja Coutts, Sura Payne and Keegan Pagel — pose for a photo Oct. 18, 2023, at Patrick Marsh Wildlife Area following an event to teach elementary students about agriculture in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. The Sun Prairie East FFA Chapter has 377 members and does a variety of volunteering and fundraising throughout the year.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Posted Saturday, February 10, 2024 12:00 am

377 members
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
Dane County

Tell us about your chapter. We are an active chapter. We do a lot of community service and a lot of agriculture education and advocacy. Also, many FFA students compete in a variety of contests.

How does your chapter volunteer in the community throughout the year? Our chapter does several volunteering events. This ranges from ringing bells for The Salvation Army to going to our elementary schools to teach about agriculture. Even throughout the summer, we attend events to provide learning experiences for youth and provide services at a local senior center. We also do lots of local events like our strawberry fests, kiddie farms and candlelight hikes.

What fundraisers does your chapter do throughout the year? Our biggest fundraiser is the plant sale. Throughout the year in our agriculture classes and FFA, members grow plants that we sell in the spring.

What are the biggest events of the year? Our biggest events are Marsh Madness and Food for America where we do activities to engage with the youth in our community.

What is unique about your chapter? Our chapter does a handful of things that might not be considered normal. To promote FFA and make the beginning stages of being an FFA member easier, we make all member meetings engaging. We do a traditional turkey bowling meeting. It sounds exactly how it is. We duct tape a frozen turkey and throw it across the classroom at bowling pins. The meeting gets competitive quickly. We try to plan every meeting to be just as fun as the last. We have an upcoming meeting in February that is agriculture-olympic themed. Even outside of our meetings, we have a driven chapter that is always scheduling conferences or community service opportunities. We always have something for our members to do to stay involved.

When was your chapter founded and how has it evolved? Our chapter was founded in 1948. The chapter has evolved especially in the past 20 years. We have moved from standard agriculture-based learning to an urban-focus application of agriculture, for students who don’t have an agriculture background.