Cashmere FFA to compete at National level

It's that time of year when FFA gets ready to head off to their Nationals Convention. This year, eight lucky students are heading off to Nationals, which is to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana during the last full week of October.
This year's competitors include Lizzy Carney, Grace Kelly, Rhiannon Strutzel, Dani Monroe, Isaiah Hall, Hunter Duke, Reilly Schoening and Jade Jaspers (who will be coming from Washington State University).
Kelly, Schoening, Monroe, Strutzel make up Cashmere's Food Science Team while Carney, Hall, Jaspers and Duke are the members within the Environmental Natural Resources Team.
Within the Food Science and Technology category, there will be a written 50 question knowledge test, a team activity, a consumer inquiry scenario, analyze customer complain scenarios and identifying problems as quality or safety concerns.
The team activity will revolve around designing a product according to market and consumer trends. The competitors will then present their product to a panel of judges.
"The thing I'm looking forward to the most is seeing how well we do compared to every other state," Schoening said.
Kelly, who's among those on the Food Science team, is very much looking forward to competing as well and expressed how much fun she has in doing so.
"I'm looking forward to competing on the National level and also getting to experience a different part of the country because I've only really been on the west side of it," Strutzel said. "I hope that we can just have a really good time and do really well and be very successful together as a team and as a school with our Environmental Resources team too."
Monroe, who went to Nationals last year, is looking forward to being able to compete with her best friends and gain new experiences alongside them.
The Environmental Natural Resources category will have students construct a management plan after evaluating an environmental issue. They will present their management plan to presiding judges. These students will also compose a press release or a letter to the editor as another objective for the competition.
There will be a written test for them as well, which allows for up to 100 points to be scored. A Water Quality, Soil Profile Evaluation, Waste Management and Global Positioning System Practicum that will be worth 100 points and an Individuality Identification Test for the same amount of points possible.
"I don't really know what to expect but Indianapolis should be pretty cool," Hall said. "I'm excited to see how I stack up against everyone else."
Carney, also on the Environmental Natural Resources team, is excited to learn more about Environmental Natural Resources during her time competing.
"I think I'm most excited for seeing what it's like because this will be my first year going to Nationals," Duke said. "I've heard a lot of stuff and that it's a lot of fun from people who have gone in the past. I'm really excited to experience it for myself and see what it's like and also get the chance to compete at that level."
The FFA crew will leave the high school early in the morning on Sunday, October 22 and will return on Saturday, October 28. Two of their days away will consist of competing, two will be spent preparing beforehand and the other days will be spent traveling.
"These teams should be pretty competitive," FFA Advisor Rusty Finch said. "One of the competitions that Environmental Natural Resources has is so vague that you really don't know much. You try to prepare for as much as you can. But with Food Science we know exactly what to prepare for."
Finch added on that the fact that the Environmental Natural Resources competition is so vague is pretty daunting for the team members.
"They say 'prepare for a team activity and a presentation around waste management'," Finch said. "That could be agricultural waste, human waste, toxic waste or nuclear waste. I guess we have to be prepared for all of them."
The cost for the trip to Nationals will be about $650 per student.
A Prime Rib Dinner and Silent Auction fundraiser will be held on Friday, October 20 from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. in the high school's Community Center.
The dinner will consist of Traeger smoked prime rib, scalloped potatoes, caesar salad, dinner rolls, beverages and desserts. Donations for the auction are also being accepted according to Finch.
Last year there were around 230 people at the dinner/auction and Finch would love to see just as many, if not more, attend this year.
The students' parents will also be selling raffle tickets for a half of a hog, which is to be cut and wrapped by J&J Meats, through Cashmere's Youth Support fund that is facilitated by Bob Wildfang.
"So that's another avenue as well," Finch said about the raffle.
According to Finch, once the teams get down to Indianapolis they hope to branch out a little bit.
"We want to go down to Louisville and hit Churchill Downs and the the bat factory that's down there," Finch said. "In Indi, we'll see the speedway and then visit Butler University. Then maybe we'll hit these huge haunted houses back there for fun and do some entertaining things."
Finch expects that his teams will make it into the Top 5 Teams of Nationals.
"Every year we've been back there since 2012 we've had at least one kid bring back a scholarship," Finch said. "Usually the Top 10 kids in the nation bring back a scholarship. If the team wins it that's $1,000 per kid, so that'd be pretty sweet."
Tickets for the Dinner and Auction will be available at the door or through Cashmere High School FFA members. Rusty Finch can be contacted at the high school at 509-782-2914.