Poplar High School Starts FFA Chapter

Poplar High School students learned a little more about FFA during a presentation by two state officers on Wednesday, Dec. 9.

Montana FFA’s second vice president Chay Van Dyke, originally from Glendive, and parliamentarian Allyson Young, originally from Fairview, spoke to the Poplar students, who are having an FFA chapter for the first time since the 1940s.

Van Dyke and Young talked to students in Culbertson and Fairview earlier in the day.

“It’s nice to have face to face interaction with students finally,” Young said.

The two are both currently Montana State University students.

“We kind of just represent the FFA,” Young explained. “We basically donate a year of our lives serving the organization.”

They noted that Montana FFA consists of eight different districts. Poplar is part of the Big Muddy District.

They explained the different competitions for FFA and the details of contests. “There’s something for everybody,” Van Dyke said.

So far, Poplar has 12 students in grades 7-12 active in the chapter. Officers are Harlee Berg as president, Courtney Alexander as vice president, Kylie Gourneau as secretary, Patricia Charboneau as treasurer and Gage Berg as sentinel. Reporters are Rosanna Youpee, Eva Figueroa and Payton Grey-Hawk.

There are 765,000 students involved in FFA throughout the country. Of those students, 54 percent are female.

Poplar advisor Ted Fulgham said he’s hopeful the chapter can compete at the mechanics contest in Lewistown during January.

“That would be our first overnight activity,” Fulgham said.