FFA students from Yelm and Tenino high schools stood in front of the Thurston County Board of Commissioners and citizens in attendance Tuesday, Feb. 18, and shared how the program has influenced and affected their lives.
For many of the students, that would not have been possible prior to their joining FFA. They visited the county commissioners meeting as the board proclaimed the week of Feb. 15 through Feb. 22 National FFA Week.
Kolton Nash, a member of the Yelm FFA chapter, described to the commissioners how the program brought him out of his shell and gave him the opportunity to connect with likeminded people.
“I’ve always been a very timid and shy person, and it got worse with COVID. I barely talked to anybody, and none of my teachers knew who I was,” Nash said. “When I got to ninth grade, I finally decided I was going to change, and FFA helped me do that. I joined FFA and found my community in the different competitions and activities that I do. Through FFA, I’ve learned that everybody has a place and that I’m not alone. Nobody’s alone.”
Ynavi Rodriguez, the president of the Tenino FFA chapter, expressed the shared goals between the FFA program and the Board of County Commissioners.
“We are built off of three main pillars called our quality standards. The three quality standards are growing leaders, building communities and strengthening agriculture,” she said. “These three main pillars are really what uplift our nationwide organization. It’s everyone working to improve where they’re from, which is so important to recognize the beauty in your town and work toward improving your own life and the life of those people around you, which I know the Board of Commissioners can totally understand.”
Rodriguez told the commissioners that she would have been terrified to stand in front of an audience and speak, but she said she has grown confidence and her leadership through FFA and the projects she works on.
“As a chapter, when I look around at my town, there are so many different things that we have done that have truly strengthened our community. There’s so many things from giving out toys to kids who need it to recognizing our veterans on Veterans Day,” she said. “It is truly a blessing to be a part of that, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Kyla Poland, Yelm FFA president and national FFA finalist in public speaking, showed off her skills by sharing how her chapter has stepped up to help in the Yelm community’s time of need amid budget cuts in the school district.
“It’s really clear to myself and the rest of my community that more service and more volunteer work is really crucial in our community right now. I feel like FFA has stepped up in a way that I really haven’t seen even from some of the adults in my community,” Poland said. “The biggest product that I’ve seen is what we did at Yelm Community Services. The YCS has our food bank and also a housing facility, and we were able to help them rebuild a thrift store that brought nearly $5,000 to them just in November and December.”
Gracie Sweet, of Tenino, said her favorite project with the chapter is their annual holiday house that provides children with free gifts for the holidays. The chapter also stuffed 100 stockings for the unhoused as a class.
“During the holiday house, which we put on together, we go and we shop for gifts with the money that we make in selling wreaths. Ninety nine children received gifts for the holidays last year,” she said.
Tenino FFA was created in 1935, seven years after a group of boys started the first FFA club, and Yelm FFA began in 1941. Yelm FFA advisor Matt Mounts shared that YHS has had the largest FFA chapter in the nation two out of the last five years and has been named a top 10 chapter in the nation 12 times in his tenure in Yelm. He expressed his fear in the future of the program after the district’s recent third levy failure.
“Yelm FFA has a pretty rich tradition in success and making an impact in their community. I’d be crazy not to stand in front of you … you’ve heard it before but our levy failed, and it didn’t just fail by a little bit. It got creamed,” Mounts said. “It’s going to take us a lot to get out of that deficit. Every stone we can unturn, everywhere we can ask, ‘How can you help,’ every little bit is going to help make programs like this continue. We don’t know where the cuts are going to be. They might be this. They might not, but this is an awesome organization that every kid deserves the opportunity to participate in.”
