Thank you for replacing national FFA awards

On behalf of the students who attended Ritzville High School from the years 1976 to 2004 and who participated in the Agriculture Education Program and FFA organization, and myself, we wish to extend to Marci Miller and the Ritzville School Board a great big thank you for replacing the FFA plaques that were destroyed 18 months ago. Those plaques were the last remaining evidence of the unbelievable accomplishments from this era of the agriculture department on display in the entire school district.

To understand these accomplishments of 10 times National Champions; eight times, second in the nation; three times, third in the nation; and two times, fourth in the nation – one must realize there are nearly 8,000 FFA chapters in the United States with membership of over 500,000 FFA members.

Ritzville FFA students accomplished these feats in five different curriculum areas: Parliamentary Procedure, Agricultural Issues, Sales and Service, Soil Science and Horse Science. To compete at this National level, a team must first be declared a state champion. Ritzville Agriculture students competed against 4A schools with over 200 students in their program and multi-man agriculture teaching departments. Between the years of 1976-2004, the Ritzville FFA Chapter accomplished 40-50 state championships. At the National level Ritzville teams competed against state champion teams such as Texas and California, who had to defeat a 1,000 teams from their own state in order to represent their state. To be National Champion, Ritzville had to defeat those teams.

Examples of some incredible Ritzville Agriculture students’ accomplishments include:

The 1994 soil team set a 50 year contest record in two areas of competition that still stands today; the 1998 and 1999 Agricultural Issues teams are the only teams to win the National Championship in back to back years with different team members; the 1992 Parliamentary Procedure Team was the first team who were “ever” recognized officially as National Champions by the National FFA organization. These are notable examples of historical achievements that should be remembered and be on display.

The displays representing the FFA accomplishments are truly an entire school district award. These former students used their reading skills developed in first grade through high school, along with math, science, English and other skills at the high school level to compete at the national FFA competition.

This is the principal reason the recognition plaques were placed in the designated high school trophy case and not in the agriculture room.

Although not all the trophies and plaques could be replaced exactly as before for a total cost of $20,000, the students and I are very grateful and thankful for the completed project as now displayed.

Thank you again for recognizing the importance of keeping this Agriculture program history on display. The plaques in the display case can be used as a motivational tool for current RHS students to demonstrate that students even from small high schools can set high goals, have determination and drive as well as maintain a work ethic that achieves what they want to academically accomplish. Success breeds success.

Michael Schrag, Agriculture Education Instructor 1976-2004, Ritzville School District