Team earns Silver rating at National FFA Convention in Indianapolis; Ariana Talbott receives individual Gold honor
The East Knox FFA recently represented the state of Ohio and competed in the National FFA Nursery/Landscape Career Development Event held in conjunction with the 98th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Oct. 29-Nov. 1.
Ariana Talbott, Mackenzie Wilson, Ava Page, and Madisyn Frost placed 18th out of a field of teams from across the United States with a team rating of Silver. The top 13 teams in the nation received a Gold rating, the next 17 teams finished with a Silver ranking, and the final 13 teams received Bronze ratings. Individually, each student is rated Gold, Silver, or Bronze. Talbott placed 41st and received a Gold rating, Page finished 54th with a Silver rating, Frost was 107th and rated Silver, and Wilson received a Bronze rating. The team received a plaque for its placing and each member received medals for their individual national ranking at the awards banquet held on Thursday in the Indiana Convention Center at the National FFA Convention.
The team advanced to the national contest after placing first in the State FFA Nursery/Landscape Career Development Event finals held at Delaware Area Career Center on March 26. In the state event, competitors had to program an irrigation control panel, repair an irrigation line and install a sprinkler head, calculate a landscape maintenance estimate, lay sod, operate zero-turn mowers, plant and stake a tree, and operate commercial mid-size walk behind mowers. Individually, Talbott placed first, Page finished second, and Frost was 15th out of 253 competitors.
The National Nursery/Landscape Career Development Event is an activity designed to demonstrate students’ skills in the area of Nursery and Landscape Management. In the event the students completed hands-on activities of grading and drainage, plant installation, zero-turn mower operation, surveying, and writing a service invoice. Students also took a general information test; completed estimation problems; did a verbal customer relation situation; identified various trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, groundcovers, weeds, and physiological problems of plants; and completed a propagating activity.
This is the ninth time that an East Knox FFA Nursery/Landscape team has represented Ohio at the National CDE and the twelfth total National competition which includes three Eastern Regional events in Massachusetts.
The National FFA Organization is a national youth organization of 1,042,245 student members as part of 9,407 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.