This holiday season, the FFA is making a difference in the community. Poinsettia sales and a holiday canned food donation are among those activities.  

     According to senior FFA president, Cole Hellwig, the goal for this year’s canned food collection is to get around 800 cans. He added that “teachers are doing incentives” to boost donation participation. The boxes for the canned drive could be found in “every ag teachers room as well as the office” Hellwig stated. 

     In the past the FFA used to donate to “local churches” but “this year donations will go to the Mason-Dixon Community service drive.” Hellwig added that they are leaving it to the Mason-Dixon community service drive to disperse the canned goods. 

     Mason-Dixon Community Services also hosts other holiday giving events. These include the “adopt-family- program” to provide families with “traditional holiday meals and gifts for the children.” They also host a “Senior Secret Santa Program” along with a “Toys-for Tots” according to mason-dixon.org.

     Giving back to the community is what Hellwig “pushed in his interviews this year for being an officer and pushed for community service.” He added that “community service” is what he “emphasizes” as president. 

     Sophomore Keegan Huss is a member of the community service committee within the FFA. “Helping the community” is the “whole purpose as the community service committee” and “doing things that benefit the community and people in school” according to Huss. The sophomore added that it makes her feel good to know she is making a difference in people’s lives. The FFA has been “getting together” the collection boxes, “s[reading the word” through word of mouth social media.

     Senior Calvin Rose is the chaplain for the FFA. He expressed that while this “seems like a small thing but” he “likes to help out in any way” he can. Rose “wants to get more people involved” as well. As an officer he has been “trying to communicate with the members to get them to pitch in as much as they can” so that in the end when everyone comes together they “can make a large difference in the community.”

     This year’s FFA historian, sophomore Sophia Reinert expressed how “fortunate” she feels that the FFA is “able to give back to others that help” the students by giving them “resources to go on” trips and bolster the education ag students receive.