The St Joseph-Ogden FFA has had a busy few weeks since school started.
On Sept. 12, SJO FFA students helped at Carle’s Progressive Agriculture Safety Days held at Gordyville.
More than 500 students in Pre-K through eighth grade from St. Malachy, Thomasboro and Gifford participated in the event.
During the event, hosted by the Carle Center for Rural Health and Farm Safety, students participated in different activities to increase their safety, not only in agricultural situations but in daily activities.
Carle Rural Health Farm Safety coordinator Amy Rademaker said they are trying to raise awareness of safety issues.
Rademaker said that she spoke to some parents who said their children were eager to share what they learned during the Progressive Agriculture Safety Days.
Rademaker said she spoke to one parent who said they asked their child what they learned at the event.
For the next two hours, the parent was told all about the event.
Another parent said after attending the event their child came home to help mow the yard.
The child put on jeans, a long sleeved shirt and safety googles, which was what was discussed at the safety event for lawn mower safety.
Rademaker said that is proof the kids take in what they are taught and use it in their daily lives.
“Right then and there you know,” she said.
Rademaker’s own children attended safety day this year.
“All night long they wanted to talk about it,” she said.
Rademaker said that while children are interactive with the different exhibits you will hear “oohs and ahhs.”
“So you know they are responding and interacting, she said.
Exhibits included tractor safety, bullying, meth awareness, firearms safety, first aid and 911, fire safety, animal safety and sun safety.
Before the event, the children were surveyed on four questions and they were surveyed after the event to test their knowledge gain. Rademaker said they usually see a 60 to 80 percent increase in the student’s knowledge by the end of the event.
FFA adviser Katie Duitsman said the SJO FFA has been helping with the event for quite a few years.
“Its an opportunity to show some leadership,” she said. “Anytime you teach anything to somebody you learn about it too.”
St. Joseph-Ogden FFA member Mallory Ames helped at the bullying exhibit on Wednesday.
The students made red, white and black bracelets. The red represented stopping the bullying, white represented walk away and black represented tell an adult.
“We told the kids it was better to use these three instead of fighting back,” Ames said. “They really liked the interactive bracelets.”
The FFA has also spent August and most of September working to prepare their new greenhouse.
The greenhouse is located on the south lawn of the school and is one of the most technological greenhouses in the area, said Duitsman.
The students and Duitsman hope to be able to start using the greenhouse by the end of September.
“The greenhouse will provide an opportunity for students to have more hands-on learning experiences within the Ag Department,” Duitsman said. “We have already seen an increase in the number of students enrolled in the program, and we anticipate that trend to continue.”
Duitsman said there are several local employers who work in the agronomy and horticulture sectors, and the greenhouse will help the program to prepare students for future careers.
“With the addition of the greenhouse we are now able to offer dual credit through Parkland College for our Horticulture class,” she said. “This is something the parents and students are all very excited for.”
Duitsman said students ask her daily if the greenhouse is ready to be used. They like to look in the windows of the greenhouse to see the progress of the project.
“I am excited to see the firsthand knowledge students gain through working in the greenhouse,” she said. “It is very satisfying seeing your labor and hard work pay off and I hope they get a sense of that when they see it full of plants for the first time. The agriculture students and myself are very appreciative of the administration, school board, community members and contractors who were involved in this project. My hope is that the community will continue to support the greenhouse for decades to come.”
Duitsman said that when she started at SJO she realized the plant science was an area of weakness for the Agriculture program.
Since then they have added a class which focuses on plant and animal science and a Horticulture class.
Duitsman made it a goal to get SJO a greenhouse.
“Over the past five years I worked with several greenhouse companies on designs and getting quotes,” she said. “This was presented to the school board which got the ball rolling on the project. This project is personally very important to me because I love plant science and I am very excited about teaching it to students in our school district. I also live in this community and I love seeing my tax dollars spent on improving the quality of education for youth in our community.”
