Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, April 28, 2011

Five Mount Ayr Community FFA chapter members received their Iowa FFA degrees, Johnathan TRIGGS was named the state's FFA Rising Star and placings in a number of other events were announced when 20 chapter members attended the state FFA leadership conference in Des Moines recently.

Named to the Iowa FFA degrees were Matt SOBOTKA, Drake SCHAFER, Christian OVERHOLTZER, Trevor RICHIE and Ashley PHELPS. They join 235 other previous Iowa FFA degree winners from the chapter.

Matt SOBOTKA is the son of Gary and Darla SOBOTKA of Mount Ayr. His supervised ag experience project is in forage production.

Drake SCHAFER is the son of Duane and Janelle SCHAFER of Mount Ayr. SCHAFER'S supervised ag experience project is in placement at Smith Oil in Mount Ayr.

Christian OVERHOLTZER is the son of John and Mary K. OVERHOLTZER of Tingley. OVERHOLTZER'S supervised ag experience is in forestry.

Trevor RICHIE is the son of Daron and Kelly RICHIE of Benton. His supervised ag experience is in placement at Graham's Auto.

Ashley PHELPS is the daughter of Jeremy and Donetta PHELPS of Kellerton. Her supervised ag experience project is in placement at the Wagon Wheel Cafe in Tingley.

Named the state's Rising Star was Johnathan TRIGGS. Rising Star award winners were named from each of the FFA districts in the state and then TRIGGS was announced as the state winner at the meeting.

Matt SOBOTKA ws one of the state finalists in the forage proficiency award and ended up placing second in this award category.

The FFA chapter brought home two gold medals from the state contests they were a part of.

The ag communications team of AleS SOBOTKA, Josh Fernandez, Morgan QUICK and Maggie JENNEM placed ninth in the state and received a gold medal.

The National Chapter Activites entry placed 18th out of the chapters in the state and crecived a gold medal.

Silver medals went to:

Ag broadcasting -- Alex SOBOTKA
Greenhand quiz -- Alisha LINK and Cody STACKHOUSE
Team ag sales -- Matt KEMS, Katelyn WANN, Logan WIMER and Johnathan TRIGGS

Taking a bronze medal was the farm business management of Matt SOBOTKA, Drake SCHAFER, Christian OVERHOLTZER and Trever RICHIE.

With a participation recognition was marketing plan team of Taylen ABARR, Alyssa ADAMS and Hagan WILLIS.

The chapter also had a chapter display put together by Ahsley PHELPS, Loran WIMER and Jena JAMES.

Also taking part in the activities was Nichole PHELPS, who sang with the state FFA choir.

Courtney TAGLAUER is chapter advisor for the Mount Ayr Community chapter.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, April of 2011