Lind-Ritzville FFA receives $7,500 donation from Wilbur-Ellis for greenhouse projects

The Wilbur-Ellis Company recently donated a $7,500 Impact Fund check to the Lind-Ritzville FFA program for improvements to the greenhouse.

The money is being used to improve the efficiency of the greenhouse by completing an electrical project, as well as additional improvements.

Last year served as the first year for the greenhouse project, and grow lights were installed to help replace the natural sunlight needed for plants to photosynthesize. The chapter discovered the lights work well and ensure all the plants receive light.

Due to the difficulty of ensuring all the plants received adequate amounts of water, the FFA chapter wants to install an irrigation and fertilizer system. The system allows plants to receive the proper nutrients.

With these additions, the chapter hopes to produce a higher yielding plant profit, allowing the members to raise additional funds for chapter expenses.

The Lind-Ritzville FFA chapter uses fundraising money to attend state and national conventions, as well as other educational events.

Chapter members compete in Career Development Events (CDEs) including Land Evaluation, Agronomy, Livestock Evaluation, Creed, Rituals, Meat Judging, Marketing Plan, Prepared Public Speaking, Ag Issues and many more competitions.

In a letter of appreciation to Wilbur-Ellis, the Lind-Ritzville FFA chapter members said, “Not only does the greenhouse help us with funding our very successful FFA chapter but also allows our horticulture class with hands on experience with plants. This class has also been available but now students get a better visual understanding and responsibilities when assigned plants.

“We would like to thank Wilbur-Ellis again for their generous donation.”