The 2023 Cleveland FFA Banquet was held here in Cleveland on Thursday May 11. This banquet’s purpose was to recognize the people who have competed in CDEs throughout the school year, honor the senior officers and announce the 2023-2024 officer team. 

The banquet was a huge success. Teams that competed on the Federation and Regional level were given plaques with their names and the name of the Career Development Events (CDE) competition they competed in. Some of those CDEs recognized were Creed Speaking, Forestry, Food Science, Ag Mechanics, Prepared Public Speaking, Quiz Bowl, Ag Sales Jr and Sr and plenty of others. This June, many of the teams listed above will go on to compete at the State level to possibly have the chance of competing Nationally in Indianapolis this fall. 

We had 4 senior officers that gave their Retiring Addresses last night: Harrison Griffis, Kaylee McLawhorn, Lane Matthews and Bridgett Marin. It was a bittersweet moment, but these four did amazing. During the banquet, we took time to honor our senior FFA members with a slideshow. The slideshow included pictures of the members from babies to young adults and their future colleges and majors. 

At the very end of the banquet new officer team was announced, here are the Cleveland FFA 2023-2024 officers:

President – Megan Plaster

Vice President – Erin Knittle

Secretary – Susannah Piatek

Treasurer – Preston Sharp

Reporter – Liliana Duerrich

Historian – Jayden Bumpus

Chaplin – Holland Tyler

Parliamentarian – Madelyn Spence

The members, officers and advisors of this club have such a positive impact on each other through everything the chapter does as a whole. Our FFA chapter will even be receiving a Gold Award at Nationals this year. Only 10% of the FFA chapters in the U.S. will get a chance to receive this award! In conclusion, I believe that the FFA Chapter has grown a lot over the past year and will continue to grow and impact the Agriculture Field.