Blue Jackets. Bright Futures! 1 Fall 2013

The magazine goes on to read, “As you accept the dignity of wearing the jacket that carries the emblem and colors of FFA into the battle of life, may the world be greatly

pleased with the good deeds it will see performed by the chosen few. When they see the FFA jacket, they feel the leaders are being trained.”

As FFA heads back to Louisville, Ky., to once again fill the Kentucky Exposition Center’s Freedom Hall with a sea of blue, the organization will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the blue jacket. In 1933, a group of delegates voted to adopt the blue jacket as Official Dress. This icon is undoubtedly the most recognizable symbol of student leadership in American agriculture.

Each time a jacket is zipped, memories are made and lessons learned. Many FFA sponsors and donors recognize the impact of the blue jacket and have chosen to help give back. In one example, Syngenta and its retail partners launched the FFA Blue Jacket Program in 2008. Since then, Syngenta has matched every $2,500 pledge by retailers through the program to support FFA. As a result, together they have donated more than $2.89 million to the organi-zation and more than 550 FFA jackets.

Jeremy Crouch, a Syngenta sales representative, has been an advocate for the program since its inception. He works with retailers who donate to the program. “Kids are our future,” Crouch said. “If FFA doesn’t train them, who will?” When asked how he encouraged the retailers to become involved, he said, “Hon-estly, most of the retailers are agriculturally focused and pro-mote agriculture on all levels (lo-cal, state and national). That is the beauty of the Blue Jacket Program,

Celebratingof the Blue JaCket!

“Be careful – your jacket is showing. Your colors of blue and gold, the motif carried out in the design of your jacket, marks you as a young man chosen by your [peers] to represent the best we have in agriculture,” advised the American Farm Youth magazine in 1961. Today, the pride and honor associated with wearing the jacket is still strong.

Today, more than 70,000 FFA jackets are made each year.Continued on page 2

InsIde ThIs Issue:

• Milestones: Celebrating 25 years

• FFA sponsors team with members to battle hunger

• FFA Alumni spotlight

Continued on page 3

Fall 2013

“WLC, why are we here?”“To do what we can, with what

we have where we are.”

These words rang through the ballroom of the Washington, D.C., hotel as FFA

members embarked on a life-changing adventure. The Washington Leadership Conference was offered for six weeks this past summer, and hundreds of members realized their potential in citizenship and the need to value people and prepare for the noble calling of serving others.

During the students’ week at WLC they also learned the value of team work and ultimately created a “Living to Serve

Creating synergy in service

By Katy Mumaw

80years

Photo courtesy of News Link, Inc.

2 Blue Jackets. Bright Futures!Fall 2013

By Katy Mumaw

By Katy Mumaw

Kayce Christie, a member of the Hamilton FFA in Chandler, Ariz., received her FFA

jacket from individual donor Jenna Clark, an education specialist at the National FFA Organization. Christie is currently a sopho-more and received her jacket as a freshman.

Q: What did it mean to you to receive your own jacket?

Christie: It meant everything to me. FFA is so important to me, and I love it. Having my own jacket makes me feel completely part of FFA.

Q: How does wearing the jacket make you feel?

Christie: I feel full of pride and happy when I wear my jacket.

Q: What would you like to do after high school?

Christie: I want to be a counselor for special education students.

Q: What FFA activities are you involved in?

Christie: I am on the Food Science team. I help my advisor, Ms. Gutierrez, with the chickens in the greenhouse for my SAE. I am also the Hamilton FFA Chapter reporter. I Love FFA and everything about it. We have fun meetings and activities. I help with the junior high CTE tours to encourage eighth graders to join agriculture classes.

tural information business in North America. They offer live events, digital products, data, marketing services and publications, said Greg Frey, vice president and market leader of Penton Farm Progress.

Frey credits Bob Moraczcwski, a 32-year employee who is now retired, with initially deciding to invest in the members of FFA. Frey and Penton Farm Progress continue to support FFA for many reasons. “We see a lot of value in the organization, and we want to remain a part of the tradition. It is a great organization training our future leaders and farmers and we are happy to be a part of it,” he said.

The Fox Foundation, a private foundation in Newfield, N.J., is also celebrating 25 years of giving. They annually give to the National FFA Leadership Fund.

Individuals honored for this benchmark include Neil and Patty Jo Christenson of Wis-consin and Mark Rumbold of Illinois. The Christensons have supported the foundation with their time as a member of the sponsors’ board and as an executive sponsor. They have given to various programs in leader-ship and educator development. Rumbold received his Honorary American FFA Degree in 1992. He has also donated his time and funds to the National FFA Foundation as an executive sponsor and has personally con-tributed to the leadership fund.

The National FFA Organization and National FFA Foundation

continue to find ways to bring the last line of the FFA motto, “Living to Serve,” to life for local FFA chapters. One such way is the Living to Serve Grant Program, which now awards three types of grants: Rural Youth Development, Environmental and Food For All. Just this year alone, FFA has awarded almost a million dollars through these three grant programs.

The Rainer FFA Chapter in Wash-ington has benefited for the past two years from the Food For All grant, supported by CHS and Farmer’s Feeding the World through the National FFA Founda-tion. “We started this project because kids are hungry,” said Angie Karnes, agriculture educator and FFA advisor at Rainer High School. “I was feeding kids pretzels and crackers out of my cupboard…but I wanted to feed them healthy local food. What start-ed as a class project to provide some fresh fruits and vegetables to our local community has grown substantially thanks to grants, donations and volunteers.”

The school district provided the land and water. The chapter then built raised beds. The land once was the site of a single-wide trailer that burned to the ground, thus the need for raised beds, Karnes explained.

The first year of the project, they got the lumber for the raised beds donated. “The Food For All grant administered by the Na-tional FFA Organization really gave us a chance to make our community garden sus-tainable,” Karnes said.

During the second year of the grant, the chapter was able to put in a watering system. “With 54 consecutive days of no precipita-tion, one year, we were spending an average of four hours a day watering. With the grant dollars we were able to teach the students about creating an irrigation system and then actually do it,” Karnes said.

Riley Hanna, a sophomore in Karnes’ program, enjoys getting the greenhouse ready for the plant sale, transplanting, helping to harvest and tilling the beds. “The garden project has helped me develop public speaking skills with opportunities to speak to the community and newspapers

it is recognized on all levels.” Individual donors can also give an FFA

jacket to the chapter of their choice. Ambra Tennery, a former member of the Danville FFA Chapter in Indiana, knows the possi-bilities the jacket can ignite for a member. “When I wore my jacket it made me feel important, empowered and a part of some-thing much bigger than myself,” she said. “I donated a jacket to a student at Emma Donnan Middle School because I wanted to provide them the opportunity to ‘suit up’ and be a part of something that can be life changing. Many students just need someone to stretch out a hand to provide them with materials that will open doors for something great.”

Service to others, deeply rooted in the organization’s values, is now passed on to each jacket recipient from corporate spon-sors and individual donors alike. It doesn’t matter if you have worn the jacket or not, the power to pass on opportunities for stu-dents to actualize their potential is yours.

As an FFA advisor, this program has helped me give a deserving student a jacket,” said Alicia Gutierrez, an agriculture educa-tor at Hamilton High School in Chandler, Ariz. “Kayce would have never been able to afford a jacket on her own. She is a great student, and FFA makes a major difference in her life. I was very emotional when I received the letter that I would be getting a jacket to award to someone in my chapter. I was trying to find a way to get a jacket for her for a while. She is very deserving, and this program is amazing!

The silver anniversary for our sponsors and donors recognizes a quarter century

of dedication to a vision. Two corporate sponsors and two individual donors cel-ebrate the milestone this year.

Penton Media has sponsored a thousand dollar scholarship for 25 years, support-ing those pursuing higher education. They were honored with the National FFA Distin-guished Service Citation in 1986, an award given to those who have made outstanding contributions to FFA and agricultural educa-tion. They also supported the National FFA Capital Campaign in 2000 with $10,000.

In 2012, Penton Media merged with Farm Progress and assumed the name Pen-ton Farm Progress, bringing two prominent organizations under one roof and making them the largest and most diversified agricul-

Celebrating 80 Years of the Blue Jacket

Q and A with Kayce Christie

M i l e s t o n e s

Celebrating

of Service!Years25

a sponsors team with members to battle hunger

Continued from page 1

3 Blue Jackets. Bright Futures!

Plan” to take home to their chapter and community.

In addition to their individual service plans, they also participated in a group service proj-ect on the last day of the conference. The project was sponsored by CSX and operated by City Year, a national service organization.

“The project demonstrated the power of partnerships,” said Tori Kaplin, the assistant vice president of corporate responsibility for CSX. “It is a result of three organizations with similar philosophies putting our assets together, creating a synergy and as a result making the world a better place,” she said.

Participants at WLC packed school sup-plies that went directly to 12 of the 14 public schools in the D.C. area. More than 4,000 students started the 2013 school year with the supplies needed for success as a result of the WLC service day.

“We want to show FFA members that we care about the community, and with pack-ing school supplies as a large group, they too can be part of keeping kids in school,” Kap-lin said.

Hugh Harlow, a senior project manager of Care Force at City Year, worked to orga-nize the logistics of the project. He hopes

that the FFA members who participated are able to integrate this culture of service into their schools and communities. “I find that one of the main factors in influencing people to stay involved in service projects is to run a high-quality service event that is a good use of the volunteers’ time and that each indi-vidual feels valued and impacted,” he said.

FFA has been igniting student’s passions in leadership and service around D.C. since 1941 with plans to continue next year with even more opportunities for members to have this life-changing experience.

To learn more about this service project, visit www.youtube.com and search CSX FFA WLC v1. Title sponsors of the WLC program are CSX and Monsanto.

Creating synergy in service

By Katy Mumaw

Christie: It meant everything to me. FFA is so important to me, and I love it. Having my own jacket makes me feel completely part of FFA.

How does wearing the jacket make you feel?

Christie: I feel full of pride and happy when I wear my jacket.

What would you like to do after high school?

I want to be a counselor for special education students.

What FFA activities are you involved in?

I am on the Food Science team. I help my advisor, Ms. Gutierrez, with the chickens in the greenhouse for my SAE. I am also the Hamilton FFA Chapter reporter. I Love FFA and everything about it. We have fun meetings and activities. I help with the junior high CTE tours to encourage eighth graders to join agriculture classes.

tural information business in North America. They offer live events, digital products, data, marketing services and publications, said Greg Frey, vice president and market leader of Penton Farm Progress.

Frey credits Bob Moraczcwski, a 32-year employee who is now retired, with initially deciding to invest in the members of FFA. Frey and Penton Farm Progress continue to support FFA for many reasons. “We see a lot of value in the organization, and we want to remain a part of the tradition. It is a great organization training our future leaders and farmers and we are happy to be a part of it,” he said.

The Fox Foundation, a private foundation in Newfield, N.J., is also celebrating 25 years of giving. They annually give to the National FFA Leadership Fund.

Individuals honored for this benchmark include Neil and Patty Jo Christenson of Wis-consin and Mark Rumbold of Illinois. The Christensons have supported the foundation with their time as a member of the sponsors’ board and as an executive sponsor. They have given to various programs in leader-ship and educator development. Rumbold received his Honorary American FFA Degree in 1992. He has also donated his time and funds to the National FFA Foundation as an executive sponsor and has personally con-tributed to the leadership fund.

The National FFA Organization and National FFA Foundation

continue to find ways to bring the last line of the FFA motto, “Living to Serve,” to life for local FFA chapters. One such way is the Living to Serve Grant Program, which now awards three types of grants: Rural Youth Development, Environmental and Food For All. Just this year alone, FFA has awarded almost a million dollars through these three grant programs.

The Rainer FFA Chapter in Wash-ington has benefited for the past two years from the Food For All grant, supported by CHS and Farmer’s Feeding the World through the National FFA Founda-tion. “We started this project because kids are hungry,” said Angie Karnes, agriculture educator and FFA advisor at Rainer High School. “I was feeding kids pretzels and crackers out of my cupboard…but I wanted to feed them healthy local food. What start-ed as a class project to provide some fresh fruits and vegetables to our local community has grown substantially thanks to grants, donations and volunteers.”

The school district provided the land and water. The chapter then built raised beds. The land once was the site of a single-wide trailer that burned to the ground, thus the need for raised beds, Karnes explained.

The first year of the project, they got the lumber for the raised beds donated. “The Food For All grant administered by the Na-tional FFA Organization really gave us a chance to make our community garden sus-tainable,” Karnes said.

During the second year of the grant, the chapter was able to put in a watering system. “With 54 consecutive days of no precipita-tion, one year, we were spending an average of four hours a day watering. With the grant dollars we were able to teach the students about creating an irrigation system and then actually do it,” Karnes said.

Riley Hanna, a sophomore in Karnes’ program, enjoys getting the greenhouse ready for the plant sale, transplanting, helping to harvest and tilling the beds. “The garden project has helped me develop public speaking skills with opportunities to speak to the community and newspapers

about our different events, such as our food drive,” Hanna said.

Hanna has aspirations to run for a state FFA office and knows that each speaking opportunity can help reach this goal. The garden has also opened his eyes to different industry opportunities. “I want to become a chef at a restaurant where all the food comes from local farmers,” he said.

Karnes’ class is able to benefit from the grant in all three components of agricultural education: She takes the technical knowl-edge she instructs in the classroom and ap-plies it to the garden and to the members’

supervised agricultural experiences and then uses the skills acquired and knowledge gained to share with the community through various FFA outreach activities.

“Our students are learning management skills, how to be good stewards of their envi-ronment and because of their work they are able to donate fresh foods to their friends in the community who are hungry. It teaches compassion,” Karnes said.

Mariah Holmes, a senior who has taken Karnes’ environmental science class, has learned this compassion and loves planting seeds and watching them grow. “It is a re-ally awesome feeling knowing the food goes to help others in our own community,” Hol-

Rainer FFA built raised beds, sponsored by CHS through a Food For All grant, to feed food in-secure kids in their community. Other Living to Serve grant sponsors include The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Farm Journal Agricultural Foundation, the USDA, CSX and Donaldson.

2013 Living to Serve distribution totals

• Food For All Grants - $320,100• Environmental Grants - $174,000• Rural Youth Development Grants -

approximately $413,000

WLC 2013 participants packed:

• 540 welcome back to school posters• 4,320 welcome-back-to-school cards• 4,050 student cinch sacks full of school

supplies• 3,960 wellness flash cards• 270 classroom goodie boxes to support

local teachers• 36 indoor/outdoor games for students

to promote healthy lifestyles

Continued from page 1

Continued on page 4

FFa sponsors team with members to battle hunger

Fall 2013

4 Fall 2013 Blue Jackets. Bright Futures!

Churchill. At 14 years old, when he joined FFA, Martinez rehearsed his speeches for hours in front of the mirror.

As a national FFA officer, Martinez pol-ished his public speaking skills from one side of the globe to the other. His crammed itin-erary included Detroit, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Panama, Colombia, Egypt, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Germany, Holland and Denmark.

“I’m here because of all the opportunities that FFA provided to me, and those oppor-tunities were there because of everyone who came before me, helping to build the FFA program,” he says.

As a member of the board of directors of the California FFA Foundation, Martinez says, “I want to make sure that the oppor-tunities that were there for me when I was a freshman in high school will still be there for many generations to come.”

As an orchard farmer growing fruit and nut trees, it is a perfect metaphor for the seeds he sows for the future each time he donates his time and dollars to FFA. “I’m still planting a lot of new ones [seeds] that are going to be here years after I’m gone,” he says.

Donor sPotlight:FFA AluMni sPotlight:speaking from

experience By Jami Stall

FFA sponsors team with members to battle hunger

Continued from page 3

Blue Jackets. Bright Futures!

‘‘Blue Jackets. Bright Futures” is a newsletter published by the National FFA Foundation, which builds partnerships with industry, education, government, other foundations and individuals to secure financial resources to fund FFA activities, recognize member achievements, develop student leaders and support the future of agricultural education.

www.FFA.org/donate

Molly BallPresidentMball@FFa.org317-802-4357

ryan GallagherDirector, Individual Giving and Major GiftsrGallagher@FFa.org317-802-4297

mes said. Holmes plans to go to college and become a high school math teacher. Through the Rainier Community Garden and her envi-ronmental science class, she has learned that math is a big part of everything.

The FFA grant programs have given many FFA chapters a chance to actualize their ser-vice projects in a way that would not have been possible without the monetary support. These funds continue to benefit their commu-nities.

To learn more about the Rainer Communi-ty Garden, visit their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/rainiercommunity garden.

Be tHere: THE 86TH NATIONAL FFA

CONVENTION & EXPO

See blue jackets in action at the

86th National FFA Convention & Expo

Guests of the National FFA Foundation will celebrate leadership, growth and student success — recognizing how your generosity is making a difference in the lives of FFA members and shaping the future of agriculture in America — in Louisville, Ky., Oct. 30 - Nov. 2. See members in action and enjoy some special events.

National FFA Convention & Expo 2013 highlights include:

• A concert featuring Dierks Bentley with special guest Jana Kramer, Wed., Oct. 30, 8:45 p.m.

• Sponsor and Donor Recognition Reception and Dinner on Thurs., Oct. 31, at 4:30 p.m.

• The exciting career development event finals.• Nationally recognized motivational speakers

at the general sessions.• And so much more!

If you aren’t able to join us in Louisville you can still be a part of the action by streaming the convention and expo on iHigh.com/FFA. You can also watch live gavel-to-gavel coverage of the convention sessions on RFD-TV, Dish Network channel 231 or Direct TV channel 379.

When Joe Martinez speaks, people listen. His kind voice resonates with sincer-

ity and a certain familiarity, like that of an admired professor or wise uncle. “I do not believe in talking to people; I believe in talk-ing with people,” says the 65-year-old former national FFA officer and present-day north-ern California orchard farmer. “I cherish the opportunity to share my experiences and philosophies and the things that I’ve learned over the years with anyone who’s willing to listen.”

Those lucky enough to be within earshot are in for a treat, because even after four de-cades Martinez still loves public speaking, and it shows. What doesn’t show is that Eng-lish is his second language. As an American of Hispanic ancestry, Martinez was the first bilingual national officer in FFA history. He served from 1968-69 as vice president of what was formerly the Pacific Region, and he was FFA president of California from 1967-68.

Born in the United States to immigrant parents from Spain, Martinez heard very lit-tle English spoken at home. But his parents voiced a deep pride in all things American, particularly the education and language. As a youth, he made it his personal goal to be articulate in both languages. “I wanted to be able to speak English without a Spanish ac-cent and to speak Spanish without an Eng-lish [American] accent,” he explains.

For inspiration he regularly tuned in to baseball announcers Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese, and he often listened to Winston

1968-69 National FFA Officer Team; Joe Martinez, far right.

todd GreenwoodDirector, Corporate ContributionstGreenwood@FFa.org317-802-4361