Presented By Atomic Speedway

(Zane Trace FFA) — What do you get when you combine 72 yards of fleece fabric, 8 pairs of scissors and 31 Zane Trace FFA Members? The answer is 24 completed no-sew blankets for patients at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Members of the Zane Trace FFA volunteered their time outside of class during the month of May to complete the blankets. Hallee Scott, who recently served as the Chapter president, was the chair of the project and helped coordinate the purchasing of materials, setup of the work area and the instruction on how to assemble the blankets.

The project was funded using proceeds raised during the chapter’s annual Sausage Breakfast which was held in February. The blankets, along with a cash donation from the breakfast proceeds, will be delivered to Nationwide Children’s Hospital by chapter officers in July.

Presented By McDonalds, I’m Lovin’ It!

When the 2021 Ohio FFA State Convention was moved to an online format this year members of the Zane Trace FFA Chapter looked for a creative way to commemorate the event. The traditional tours of central Ohio ag businesses, competition interviews and sessions attended by over 6,000 FFA members at the Ohio Expo Center would be on hold for another year, but a new opportunity to celebrate with other FFA chapters soon took the place of the usual trip to Columbus.

Thanks to the efforts of agriculture instructors in Holmes, Wayne, Ashland, Licking and Ross Counties the 2021 FFA Funvention was planned for April 29^th and 30^th at the Holmes County Fairgrounds and Harvest Ridge Event Center near Millersburg, Ohio. Nearly 400 members from a total of eighteen chapters, including 25 from Zane Trace, attended the event. Each day they participated in live streaming of Ohio FFA Convention sessions, in person workshops related to agriculture careers and a trade show that featured nearly 50 business and educational vendors. Members also enjoyed catered meals and an awards banquet during which Dale Minyo of Ohio Ag Net broadcasting served as the emcee.  State degree recipients, proficiency winners, top CDE teams, gold rated officers and gold rated chapters were all recognized during the formal ceremony. Members were honored to have “the voice of Ohio Agriculture” call their names as they crossed the stage for each award area.

In addition to recognizing member achievement, the event also provided FFA members an opportunity to put the “living to serve” line of the FFA motto through an interactive service project.  Students worked in small groups to assemble clean up buckets for CROP/CWS disaster relief efforts.  They gathered the fifteen items needed for their buckets by answering questions related to programs sponsored by CWS which include disaster relief, sustainable agriculture and clean water access. The forty completed buckets were transported to First Christian Church in Mansfield to be distributed when needed to families in disaster areas.

The Zane Trace FFA members who traveled to Holmes County for the event came home after their two day trip with a deeper understanding of agriculture and FFA opportunities, enthusiasm for the upcoming school year and lots of new friends from around Ohio. Our chapter would like to thank Jaime Chenevey of the West Holmes FFA, all of the event sponsors and the Zane Trace and Pickaway Ross administration for their support of this event.

Picture: Members of the Zane Trace FFA recently traveled to the Ohio FFA Convention Celebration held at the Holmes County Fairgrounds in Millersburg, Ohio.

Zane Trace FFA Member Selected as Ohio Berkshire Donor Gilt Recipient

When most high school students reach their 16^th birthday they usually dream of getting the gift of a new car.  Braylee Burkitt dreamed of getting the gift of a new pig. Earlier this spring, she completed an application for the Ohio Berkshire Association’s Donor Gilt program in the hopes of being selected as the recipient of a gilt to start her own herd.  On April 26^th, Braylee got the call she had been waiting for when she was informed that she would be the proud owner of a purebred Berkshire gilt. She and her family traveled to Washington Court House two days later to pick up the newest addition to their swine barn. As part of the program, Braylee will exhibit her gilt in the Berkshire show during the Ohio State Fair then breed her to a purebred Berkshire boar. She will also donate one gilt from her first litter in 2022 to the donor program to fulfill another young person’s dream of starting a Berkshire herd. Braylee would like to thank the Ohio Berkshire Association for sponsoring this program. She is excited to expand her herd with “Hazel” in the coming year.

Picture: Zane Trace FFA Member Braylee Burkitt and “Hazel” the purebred Berkshire gilt she received through the OBA donor gilt program.

Presented By McDonald’s, I’m Lovin’ It!

The Zane Trace FFA Chapter was recently given a Gold Rating and named one of the top 10 chapters in the state of Ohio through the National Chapter Award Program. The National Chapter Award program recognizes FFA members and their chapters for the activities they plan. and conduct throughout the year.

Chapters submit an application outlining fifteen different activities they conduct that emphasize the areas of growing leaders, building communities and strengthening agriculture.

The senior members of the chapter worked throughout the months of February and March to complete the application, which included detailed descriptions of activities such as the elementary Maple syrup lessons, the Sausage Breakfast, ZT courtyard construction, canning for a cause project, RCHS dog adoption day, Pioneer Pantry and more.

The honor of receiving a Gold Rating is reserved for the top 10% of all chapters in Ohio.

Zane Trace has earned a Gold Rating every year since 2015. In addition to this recognition the chapter was selected to compete for the top chapter in the state in the area of Strengthening Agriculture thanks to the Sausage Breakfast and Maple syrup production programs offered to members.

Seniors Briana Fetters and Taylor Brown presented the chapter’s plan, implementation and impact for these activities to a panel of judges via zoom meeting on Thursday, April 1st . The chapter will learn the results of the selection committee during the Ohio FFA Convention on Friday, April 30th .

The Zane Trace FFA would like to thank the entire Zane Trace community for their support of. the program throughout the years. Receiving a Gold Rating would not be possible without strong backing from supporters of our chapter. The Zane Trace FFA is a satellite of Pickaway Ross CTC.

(Picture: Senior Zane Trace FFA members Briana Fetters and Taylor Brown present their chapter’s program of activities to judges as part of their interview for the top chapter in Strengthening Agriculture competition in the National Chapter Award contest.)

Zane Trace FFA Senior Selected to Perform During Upcoming Ohio FFA Convention Laine Abbott has always loved to play his guitar. Last year he started bringing his instrument to school to play for friends as they enjoyed lunch in the Ag classroom at Zane Trace. Some of them suggested that Laine should submit an audition video for the 2020 Ohio FFA Convention.

They thought he might just have a chance to be selected as one of the talent acts to take the stage during the annual gathering of over 7,000 FFA members at the Ohio Expo Center. Unfortunately, like many other events in the spring of 2020, the Ohio FFA Convention was cancelled and along with it Laine’s opportunity to audition.

Fast forward to February 2021, when Laine learns that the Ohio FFA will be including a limited number of talent acts, four total, for their upcoming hybrid State Convention. Laine quietly prepared his audition video hoping for a second opportunity to showcase his gifts. Dozens members from around the state submitted videos and only four would be chosen. Would Laine be among them?

The answer came in the form of a text message from his FFA advisor showing that not only had he been selected as one of the four talent acts for the Convention, but that he was slated to perform during the final session, when the largest audience would be tuning in. “I was at work when I got the text and I was so excited I actually jumped when I read it” said Abbott. “I’m really honored to have this opportunity.”

Anyone interested in watching Laine perform during the 1:00 pm Convention session on Friday, April 30th can tune in live on ohioffa.org and on Ohio FFA’s social media outlets under the username @ohioffa.

(Picture: Senior Laine Abbott of the Zane Trace FFA was recently selected to perform during the upcoming Ohio FFA Virtual State Convention.)

Presented by Hometown-Motors, Inc.

The Zane Trace Chapter of the Future Farmers of America will conduct their annual Sausage Breakfast on Friday February 5th. The event will run from 5am to 9am in the Zane Trace High School Cafeteria.

The Litter Media Cameras were at the 40th annual breakfast in February of 2018. “This involves every single class that we teach” Jennifer Johnston, Advisor for the FFA Chapter told Litter Media.

Johnston says the students go through the elementary elements of communication and teaching about being advocates for agriculture . In addition they’re taught about public relations and communication with the students about spreading the word about the breakfast.

Then there’s making the of the product.

“When it comes to actually making the sausage, that’s incorporating a lot of our animal science” said Johnston. “We talk about nutrition. We talk about the fact that pigs need to be a certain weight before the process. We go through the whole entire steps of processing the pig from carcass to plate basically. And the students participate in that through the guidance of some adults in the community that have a lot of experience in this area.”

The serving staff is made of Junior Class members while the kitchen staff is primarily members of the Senior Class.

Robert Riley, a Senior at the time of our interview explained the week of preparation for the breakfast. “Tuesday evening from 2:30pm to nine, we took twenty half-pigs, so ten pigs total, and basically from scratch cut them up, grinded them, put them into the sausage links” said Riley. “We were here Tuesday, Wednesday and this morning. We put in a lot of man hours, but it’s really been a cool experience for everybody.”

As for the 2021 breakfast on February 5th, due to the restrictions created by the pandemic, limited dine-in service will be offered. However, carry-out and drive-thru service will be available.

Suggested donation for the sausage and pancake breakfast is $5, with proceeds being donated to Nationwide Children’s Hospital.