The big white barn down Cypress Creek road may be a big part of an FFA members life, but there is more to the club than what meets the eye. Every year, members in the Future Farmers of America organization represent their chapter in a series of competitions. 

On Monday, Nov. 11, Cedar Park FFA competed in the Capital District Leadership Development Events with seven event groups. This competition included two first place wins in Public Relations and Greenhand Creed, as well as a second place win in the senior FFA quiz. Junior club members Skye Lindholm explained the difference between these competitions, a Leadership Development Event (LDE) versus a Career Development Event (CDE).

“For LDEs, we have the opportunity to compete in creed speaking, public relations, and quizzes,” Lindholm said. “When we compete in LDEs we are usually dressed in our official dress. For CDE we can compete in floral, livestock judging, poultry judging, and cotton judging.” 

Both events that placed first and the event that placed second advanced to the Area Leadership Development Events on Saturday, Nov. 23. However, before the LDE competition, much studying and preparation needed to happen. Callie Hobbs, a sophmore, advanced to area with the senior quiz team.

“Our team has been studying a lot over the past few weeks in preparation for our competitions and when we found out we made it to area then we realized we needed to study even more than we already [had],” Hobbs said. “Our hope right now is to place top six at area so we can get a banner, but we are studying because we are hoping to advance to state,”

After the area competition the public relations team received fourth, the greenhand creed speaker received fourth, and the senior quiz team got fifth. Although this does not mean that the teams advance to state, all teams were awarded another banner. Lindholm said that despite this, FFA will always be something she enjoys.

“The thing I enjoy most about FFA is the sense of community,” Lindholm said. “No matter what, you’ll have people and friends there for you when you need them. You really bond with the people in your chapter at competitions, shows, and meetings.”