Rusk FFA brings home awards from competition
BY JASON WILCOX

Rusk ag students show off their awards won at a recent competition.

The Rusk FFA put forth a dominant performance Nov. 6 at the Pineywoods District Leadership Development event. The Rusk FFA qualified six of the 24 teams for the area contest.

The Rusk FFA won second in sweepstakes, falling only three points behind the overall winner. However, in a district consisting of 25 schools, the Rusk FFA had five first place finishes in the 12 possible contests. Joey Marchetti won first place in senior creed speaking and Tommy Marchetti won first in junior creed speaking.

Billie Lynn Covington, Jana Hill and Keiera Counahan won first place in the public relations contest and Kevin Kadlecak, Nicky Goodman, Casey Hudnall, Corey Spurlock and Angel Stinson finished first place in the agriculture issues contest.

Also finishing first was the junior quiz team consisting of eighth grade students Hunter Moore, Matthew Thompson, Briana Tipton and Cheyenne Turner. Hunter Moore also won high point individual in the junior quiz contest. The senior quiz team won second advancing to the area competition as well.

The team consisted of Michael Nickle, Cheyenne Tullos, Lori Walley, and Jimme Lynn Dement. It is believed that this year's victories resulted in the most first place wins and most team advancement in the history of the chapter.

Wildlife team wins

The wildlife team has won four consecutive county, area and region wildlife contests and three consecutive high point individual awards. The Rusk FFA finished first out of 38 other teams at the Area 9 and Region 4 wildlife contest Nov. 6 at the Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest. The team consisted of Joey Marchetti, Kevin Kadlecek, Nicky Goodman and Tommy Marchetti. Out of 140 competitors, Tommy was named high point individual for both the area and the region. He won a belt buckle and $200 in prize money. Kevin finished third and Joey finished fourth overall in the contest. The team also placed first, second, third and fourth overall individually in the area contest which consisted of 75 overall competitors. The Rusk FFA will advance to the State Wildlife Contest to be held in May.

RHS represented

at national convention

This month the Rusk FFA attended the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, where more than 53,000 members from all over the United States met.

Rusk FFA members attending were Billie Lynn Covington, Michael Nickle, Lori Walley, Jennifer Hill and Joey Marchetti. They participated in sessions for the national day of service, courtesy corps, leadership workshops, accepting awards and attending a career show. The 80th National FFA Convention closed with a new National FFA Week of Service, allowing for incentives for newly established chapters and elected new national officers from Oregon, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Indiana, and Missouri.

The national days of service are two days when FFA members volunteer with area groups to enrich the lives of people in the Indianapolis, Ind. community. The Rusk group volunteered at Jameson Camp for special needs and home schooled children ages 7-17.

The Jameson Camp staff was aided by FFA members who removed invasive honeysuckle and small trees, split and stacked firewood and removed brush piles. The Rusk members served on the courtesy corps the following day for the national days of service registration. They distributed the official T-shirt to volunteers.

Rusk FFA's Jennifer Hill received the American FFA Degree, which is the highest degree that any FFA member can receive. The requirements of the degree are for the member to have invested or earned $7,500 since becoming an FFA member. Miss Hill served as the Rusk FFA president in 2005-06.

She was on the state qualifying livestock judging team and on the county, area, and regional champion wildlife judging team two years in a row. While competing in all of these intense events, she graduated eighth in her class of 110. She is the daughter of Jesse and Janice Hill.

In the United States only a half of one percent receives this degree. She also happens to be the first to receive the award in recent history from the Rusk FFA. A wall will be created to showcase the American Degree recipients.

The Rusk FFA also received the three star superior rating for the second time in three years.

This three star rating put the Rusk FFA in the top nine chapters in Texas and in the top one percent in the state. Joey Marchetti and Billie Lynn Covington received the award onstage at the second general session on national television.

While at the convention, the Rusk FFA members attended a career show to learn about multiple companies, colleges and other groups. There were more than 1,300 exhibits that offered a mix of information, education and hands-on training. The highlights of the show were the Lincoln and Hobart booths where students could enter in a national MIG welding contest. Other hands-on booths were the Toyota, Dodge, Husqavarna, and Motorcycle Mechanics Institute, where students could work on engine blocks, chainsaws and get in cars. Another part of the show was the mall section. Exhibitors sold anything from boots, to toys, to official FFA items.

Rusk FFA members visited the National FFA Center and FFA Merchandising Center, the Indianapolis Zoo and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. At the National FFA Center all members went on a tour and saw a general history of the organization and saw the offices belonging to such people as Dr. Larry D. Case, the National FFA Advisor. Then came the National FFA Merchandising Center, where all members went on a semi-guided tour of the plant where FFA Jackets are embroidered and other related items are packaged and shipped to FFA members all over the world.

Later in the week the Rusk students saw more than 320 species of animals at the zoo. These included a Polar Bear and many African species. Finally they visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500.