Cloudland and Hampton High Schools take awards at Avery Fair
Published 12:02 am Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Photo Contributed by Lauren Turbyfill Cloudland High and Hampton High School recently competed in a contest in Avery County with both teams bringing home several awards.
Photo Contributed by Lauren Turbyfill Jobe Tolley, Megan Clawson, and Journey Wood are pictured with their score sheets at the Avery County Fair FFA Competition.
Photo Contributed by Lauren Turbyfill Cody Banks from Hampton High School is pictured measuring a tree during the Forestry Competition at the Avery County Fair.
Photo Contributed by Lauren Turbyfill Hampton High School’s Josie Pierce, Cody Banks and Cody Anderson are pictured during the FFA Forestry Competition during the Avery County Fair.
Photo Contributed by Lauren Turbyfill Gabe Gouge from Hampton is pictured during the FFA Forestry Competition at the Avery County Fair.
BY DANNY BLEVINS
STAR CORRESPONDENT
The Vision and Mission Statement of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) is “to provide the next generation of leaders who will change the world, making a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education”.
Nowhere has this philosophy been displayed more than in Avery County during the past week.
On Thursday, September 5, 2019, both the Cloudland FFA and Hampton FFA Chapters ventured to Newland, NC for the Avery County A&H Fair’s Family Carload Night and FFA Invitational.
Collectively, over 25 FFA members from both Hampton and Cloudland made the quick trip across the state line to the beautiful new Avery County Extension Office to compete in a competition across four different FFA Chapters, two from Tennessee – Cloudland High School and Hampton High School, and two from North Carolina – Avery County High School and Watauga County High School.
This was a special competition because all of the FFA Advisors/Ag Teachers were alumni of Avery County High School.
Lauren Turbyfill, agriculture teacher at Cloudland High School, and Allen Ingram, agriculture teacher at Hampton High School, are 2007 graduates of Avery County High School and North Carolina State University Alumni. Turbyfill and Ingram hosted students in this event.
Mr. Ingram had a four-member team for each of the three competitions, Forestry, Tool Identification, and Plant Identification while Mrs. Turbyfill had three Tool Identification teams and one Plant Identification team.
The results ended well for both teams with Hampton High receiving first place in Forestry, and Cloudland High placing second and third in Tool Identification.
Hampton’s first place Forestry team was comprised of Cody Anderson, Cody Banks, Gabe Gouge, and Josie Pierce.
Cloudland’s second-place Tool Identification team was comprised of Logan Barnett, Gracie Freeman, Jobe Tolley, and Megan Clawson.
Cloudland’s third-place Tool Identification team was comprised of Jonah Julian, Peyton Odom, Noah Barnett, and Journey Wood.
Each competition used the North Carolina Official Career Development Event lists for plant and tree species/tools.
The Plant Identification competition required students to study 71 of the most common native and ornamental horticulture species and be able to identify 20 live specimens at the time of the test.
The Tool Identification competition provided a list of 196 common tools across woodworking, plumbing, electrical, veterinary, and forestry careers, requiring students to identify 20 specific tools at the contest.
Lastly, the Forestry Competition consisted of Tree Identification and the measurement of logs per tree.
Upon completion of the events and announcement of winners, students were offered a special ride bracelet price and encouraged to enjoy the rest of what the fair had to offer. Plans have already begun for next year’s FFA competition.
According to Turbyfill, “I am very proud of all of our kids from both Hampton and Cloudland. Mr. Ingram and I are really good friends and we both enjoy competing against one another. I know we both are really looking forward to next year, and maybe we can make this an annual event for our programs.”
Carter County Schools can be proud of both of these programs. They represent our communities well wherever they compete.
