Freeman FFA Competes at District Leadership Skills Events
Ag Demo Qualifies for State, Andersen Selected As Alternate
by Tony Jensen
January 27, 2008
Seventeen high school members and twenty junior high members of the Freeman FFA Chapter traveled to Beatrice on Tuesday, January 22nd to participate in the district Leadership Skills Events and quiz bowl.
The ag demonstration team of Matt Nieveen, Kyle Schlake, and Trenton Buss won the district contest, earning a first place purple and qualifying for the State FFA Convention ag demonstration competition. Their ag demonstration focuses on setting up a beehive from start to finish.
Kristen Andersen participated in junior public speaking and earned a blue ribbon with a speech about Colony Collapse Disorder in honeybees. Andersen was also selected as the district alternate to state.
The junior parliamentary procedure team of Kristen Andersen, Nathan Milke, Evan Buss, Eric Rapp, Ashley Ayres, Anna Jurgens, Sara Marker, Aubrey Banks, and Natalie Lenners earned a blue ribbon.
Jenna Vanderbeek was the chapter creed speaker this year and earned a blue ribbon. Jasmine Hagemeier participated in the job interview event, where she received a red ribbon. Jerod Nieveen presented a speech on the effects of a banned hormone on the dairy industry in the senior public speaking contest with a speech about the dairy industry and the effect of a ban on particular hormones in milk. He earned a red ribbon in this event. Max Weber participated in the extemporaneous speaking contest and earned a red ribbon.
Freeman had 20 junior high members participate in the quiz bowl competition. All participants won at least won match, and one Freeman team got 1st place (Abbey Klein, Madison Boddy, Kyle Schoen, and Brian Nieveen) while another Freeman team got 3rd place (Blake Lenners, Austin Ruskamp, Celia Timms, and Allison Evers). Junior high members that participated in quiz bowl include: Madison Boddy, Abbey Klein, Johnathan Neil, Austin Ruskamp, Blake Lenners, Mackenzie Ruskamp, Brooke Mason, Andy Buhr, Kyle Schoen, Celia Timms, Lindsay Hottovy, Jeffrey Wallman, Brian Nieveen, Gerit Van Engen, Allison Evers, Keri Andersen, Joel Gronewold, Katherine Weber, Savannah Banks, and Mitchell Hesseltine.
“It was a good day for us,” said Mr. Tony Jensen, FFA advisor. “The high school students showed off the hard work they put into practing for these contests, and the junior high students succeeded and had a lot of fun.”
Check out the slideshow of pictures here: 
FFA District LSE's / Quiz Bowl
