Members of the community gathered for another successful Prairie Central FFA Hog Roast and Auction Thursday night.
“This is a huge night for all of us,” said PC FFA President Grace Lemenager.
The March tradition in Fairbury brings in the majority of funds for the FFA teams to head to nationals and attend various competitions. Proceeds also help cover expenses for jackets, hotel stays, gas and dinners while traveling.
“We’ve been preparing all day, carrying everything down from the ag shop, setting it up and making sure we have everything,” explained FFA member Adri Cottrell, who could be seen holding up auction items in the gym.
Several volunteers donated time during the day to help roast and smoke the meat.
“We started this morning at 7:30 and put the first hogs on and roasted them,” said FFA Parliamentarian Carson Leman. “We’ve been going at it all day getting the items ready.”
Lexie Schaffer was on the dairy products state championship team and looks forward to nationals in the fall.
“That’s a really good experience just to learn how to not only work with dairy products but also work as a team,” stated Schaffer.
Colton Billings won the John Deere Model A tractor raffle drawing. He entered at the Gordyville farm show near Gifford earlier this year. Mark Maurer from Strawn bought the other John Deere A on Thursday’s auction at the end of the evening.
David Gibb donated the raffle tractor while John Rich donated the auction tractor. Other donations came from Ben and Jake Meister, Addis Auto Parts, Steidinger Tires, G and G Machine and the 2022-23 Ag Power class at PC.
“I’m happy to see all of the people come together and everybody that supports us,” added Cottrell.
Auctioneers for Thursday included Billy Bolen, Sam Detwiler, Mike Norris and Dan Grosshans with ringmen Chuck Lemenager and Marcus Miller. Blake Zehr helped with the silent auction with Tori Lemenager and Darcy Atkins doing the 50/50 raffle. Meat came from Chad Plenert, Michael Lanz, Tom Ifft, Earl Leman, Bruce Young and Ken Roth.
FFA alumni provided plates with napkins and cups from State Farm Agent Greg Kurtenbach and ice cream by Kilgus Farmstead. Hicks Gas donated propane with charcoal provided by Dave’s Supermarket.
Steidinger Foods smoked the turkeys and roasters included Denny Monohan, Jim Ifft, Clayton Rosenberger, Tom Yoder, Caleb Embry, Daryl Steidinger, Kent Blunier, Eric Edelman and Woody & Bubba’s. Lilah Stotler and the PCHS kitchen staff also helped out.
School year highlights for the PC FFA chapter include National CDE teams with dairy cattle national champions, dairy products reserve national champions, meats placing 10th, poultry 11th, farm and agri-business management 11th and ag mechanics 21st in the nation. State FFA degree recipients included Tyler Hartman and Kyrsten Atkins. American FFA degree candidate was Nathan Plenert.
State Career Development Events included state champions in Ag Sales and Dairy Products. Meats was second with Agronomy ninth in the state. Those preparing for state contests this spring include Food Science, Dairy Cattle, Poultry, Livestock, Mechanics, Job Interview, Public Speaking, Ag Communications and Agribusiness Management.
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