Leaders and green hands

Kimball FFA celebrated the 2016-17 Greenhand ceremony on Friday, Dec. 15 at the Harry E. McNees Auditorium and in the school's agriculture building.

The ceremony is called the Greenhand Ceremony as it marks a member's first year with the leadership organization. These members get their greenhand pins and mark their year with a painted hand on the agriculture building wall along with their name.

This year the following students received this award: Nicole Delaplane, Carli Wurdeman, Lane Wasilewski, Ethan Greenwood, Bailie Brower, Thomas Lenzen, and Brayden Lukassen. In order to receive this award a member must know the FFA creed and be involved in an agriculture class.

FFA Officers Joel Evertson (President) , Connor Moore (Vice President), Heidi Clark (Secretary) , Greg Wielke (Treasurer), Zachary Wagner (Sentinel), Tristen Cook (Reporter) and advisor Sally Wheeler congratulated each new member as the pins were disbursed.

This ceremony also celebrated the following members who earned their chapter degrees: Aroon Flores, Luis Portillo, Dawnna Merryfield, Jake Jenkins, Tristen Cook, Heidi Clark, Greg Wielke and Zachary Wagner.

Chapter degree recipients must have previously earned the greenhand FFA degree, completed at least 180 hours of systematic school instruction in agricultural education at or above the ninth grade level, be enrolled in an agricultural class, effectively led a group discussion for a minimum of 15 minutes, demonstrated five procedures of parliamentary law, have a satisfactory record, have at least 10 hours of community service and, finally, submit a written application for the Chapter FFA Degree.

Following the formal ceremony, members invited the community to join the members in the agriculture building for refreshments and to continue the celebration as the new members put their green-painted hand on the wall with their name and year of joining. They also showed the community a demonstration of how they do the process at a state convention.

Overall, it was a fun time for not only the FFA members, but also for the community.

"We are all proud of who had received the rewards, and are ready to see the new faces next year," Wheeler said.