Do I hear 18?
Long-standing FFA Harvest Auction in Vale has grown through the years
By Sean Hart
Argus Observer
Sunday, October 19, 2008 1:49 AM PDT
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| Vale FFA chapter sentinel Joshua Falls, a junior at Vale High School, shows off some of the items that will be sold at the annual FFA Scholarship Harvest Auction, which will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Vale School District bus sheds. |
VALE ” What began as an attempt to provide scholarships and recruit members for Future Farmers of America at Vale High School 17 years ago has grown beyond the farm, the name of the club and the expectations of members of the VHS Vocational Agricultural Advisory Committee who came up with the idea to hold an auction.
“The committee wanted to do something besides the routine advisory work for the FFA chapter,” Marvin Rempel, chairman of the advisory committee at the time and a current member of the new Vale FFA Scholarship Foundation Board, said.
The seven members on the advisory committee at the time thought about each contributing $100 toward scholarships for FFA members, Rempel said, but that plan was shortsighted. A suggestion came up to have an auction, and, although it took three months to get the OK and was resisted at first, the initial Vale FFA Harvest Auction brought in more than $7,000 ” 10 times what the donations from committee members would have afforded.
From the first two students to receive scholarships in 1992 through the 112 scholarships, totaling $77,175, awarded to date, many things have changed, but those involved with the auction have kept their initial goal of attracting members and providing financial help for further education.
“All three of us are working together to put this on,” Scholarship Foundation Board member Ron Martin said, referring to the VHS Vocational Agriculture Advisory Committee, the Vale FFA Alumni Chapter and the Vale FFA Scholarship Foundation Board, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that was formed this year to invest the money.
“One of the beautiful things is it involves a lot of people,” Rempel said. “There isn’t any one person that should get the credit. It’s a group effort.”
It begins with students in FFA, who go out on their own time and solicit donations from businesses, Rempel said. Then, the older members of the three organizations divide up the rest of the area to gather items.
“Everything is donated,” Rempel said, adding even the auctioneers donate their time. “And the community has supported it super.”
The auction is held the first Saturday after pheasant season opens each year and will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday this year at the Vale School District bus shed.
The proceeds, $10,000 to $12,000 on average, will be invested by the Scholarship Foundation Board into bonds and mutual funds, and scholarships are awarded annually to seniors in FFA who qualify based on a point system.
“All Vale FFA members may apply,” Martin said. “What they do from the time they are freshmen, they are given points ... and that’s how we determine the amount of money for scholarships.”
To qualify, students must be in FFA for three years and have a grade point average of at least 2.0.
“We have a one-page application ... (and) an interview,” Scholarship Foundation Board member Warren Chamberlain said. “If they fill out an application, they will get money if they are qualified.”
Vale FFA chapter sentinel Joshua Falls, a junior at VHS, said the awards are distributed at the annual FFA banquet, and he didn’t mind the extra work the auction requires.
“I actually like doing this,” he said. “It’ll help when I go to college.”
He won’t be attending the auction Saturday, though, as he will be at the National FFA Assembly, which happens to be on the same weekend this year. Money from the auction is also used to help fund trips to the national competition for Vale FFA members and teams that qualify.
The Scholarship Foundation Board hopes the fund can accumulate enough principal investments to be able to award FFA scholarships and contribute toward National FFA Assembly travel on an indefinite basis and, after reaching its $100,000 10-year goal early, is looking to the future to provide more money to an even greater number of students.
There has been one major change since the auction began, however. FFA no longer stands for Future Farmers of America. The club is now formally called the FFA organization, and it has a much broader interpretation than farming.
“Ag(riculture) is so diverse,” Chamberlain said, adding the club still faces stigmas about its former title. “You can have nothing to do with farming (and still be in FFA).”
Members of the Scholarship Foundation Board expressed the collective opinion FFA offers much more than farming skills.
“It isn’t just what they learn,” Martin said. “It’s what they walk out of those high school doors with and use every day for the rest of their lives.”
