Autumn Ag Day is a day where the whole community can learn about agriculture. On October 16th,2021, at Autumn Ag Day, families interacted with FFA members who volunteered to help teach our community about agriculture and how it affects our everyday life. 

Ben Boze, Sophomore, put his input about the day. “At Autumn Ag Day we had a very good turnout, we had lots of fun activities like pumpkin painting and the petting zoo. It was very exciting teaching the young kids and their families about agriculture. I’m excited to see more people in the upcoming years”.

  While at this event, families had the opportunity to paint pumpkins, interact with animals at the petting zoo, jump in the bounce house, look and sit in tractors and a bunch of fun and exciting activities. Families also had the chance to buy shirts supporting Autumn Ag Day and buy apple cider donuts from Selmi’s. 

  Autumn Ag day was organized by agriculture teachers and FFA co-advisors Jacqueline Walters and Meg Barnhart.

   FFA Officers were just some of the students manning stations at Autumn Ag Day, including sophomore Brady Shank working the petting zoo and helping families find other stations.  Sophomore Brady Shank is one of the four FFA Officers, along with junior James Morris, sophomore Emma Anderson, and sophomore Ryan Schryver, who were responsible for organizing and executing the event. 

  Shank said, “Autumn Ag Day was a great opportunity for our FFA members to share the importance of fall agricultural commodities and practices with the surrounding community! We promoted it through radio, flyers and word-of-mouth. My favorite part was seeing community members and their families interacting with agriculture and learning more about what goes into growing the food/fiber that we all love.” 

  Sophomore Ryan Schryver worked the pumpkin catapult, walked around to see how everything was going, and helped at the tractor pull. Scgryver shared, “I would recommend people coming back for it next year because we will know what we need to do in advance and what to improve on.” 

  After reflecting on everything that happened at the first ever Autumn Ag Day for Sterling FFA, a few changes may be made to the following years. Overall many of the activities as well as the t-shirt and donut sales all went well for the first time. Possible additions for the future are hot apple cider, a petting zoo, and a later date. 

  The event was a success as the children who visited loved to see the animals, tractors, and the bounce house. Parents loved how their kids had the chance to take their kids to a school event that helped introduce them to agriculture.