West Holmes FFA mixes Easter egg hunt, potluck and chapter business

West Holmes FFA turned its April 20 meeting in the school commons into more than a routine business session. Members combined chapter planning with an Easter egg hunt and a family potluck-style meal, then looked ahead to community involvement and a banquet that will mark the end of the school year.

The mix of student business and family time reflected how the chapter has spent the spring building momentum. On Feb. 3, nearly 30 members helped run a fundraiser at the Berlin Farmstead Restaurant that drew more than 200 community supporters and brought in $2,480 in tips and another $828.27 in sale proceeds. The next day, after an eighth-grade parent meeting, West Holmes FFA officers set up poster boards and talked with parents and students about agriculture classes and FFA, a recruiting push aimed at bringing new members into the program.

Those efforts matter because West Holmes FFA is not just a competition group. It also functions as a training ground for leadership, public speaking and responsibility, the same skills the National FFA Organization says it seeks to develop through agricultural education. Students interested in the Ag Food and Natural Resources class and FFA were encouraged to contact adviser Jaime Chenevey, whose work in agricultural education drew statewide attention when she was named one of 10 finalists for Ohio’s Golden Owl Award in 2025. The award drew 631 nominations for 123 agriculture teachers across Ohio.

The chapter’s reach extends beyond its own membership. Holmes County Farm Bureau, West Holmes High School FFA, Ohio State University Extension in Holmes County and community partners also work together on All In For Life Skills, a program held at the Holmes County Fairgrounds for juniors and seniors. The program has existed in some form since 2018 and gives students another avenue to learn practical skills tied to adulthood, work and community life.

That broader pipeline helps explain why a banquet matters. West Holmes FFA has used banquets for years to recognize students and keep families involved, with 300 members and guests attending in 2009, more than 275 at a parent-student banquet in 2010 and a 50th-anniversary banquet in 2016. The chapter’s April meeting showed the same pattern: student leadership, family participation and a steady focus on preparing young people for the next step in agriculture and local work across Holmes County.