Loyal FFA Student Discusses Selection as Section 7 State Officer

Monday, June 16th, 2025 -- 2:01 PM

The Loyal Dairy Breakfast was held yesterday on the Hornland Farm off County Road K.

Dale Erickson was at the farm for a live broadcast and had the opportunity to speak with Parker Smith of Loyal who was elected as a Section 7 State Officer at the FFA Convention last week. Dale also had the opportunity to speak with Tom Odeen with the Loyal FFA Alumni and he discussed the organization in more detail.

Listen to the interview with Parker and Tom here!

There are three remaining dairy breakfast in Clark County including Colby at the Verhoef Family Farm this next Sunday on June 22nd, in Thorp at the Bill and Bridget Ciolkosz Dairy Farm this next Sunday on June 22nd, and Greenwood at the Phil and Eliza Ruzic farm on Sunday, June 29th.

(AI assisted transcription of the interview by Otter.ai):

Parker: "Yes, so the state convention started on Monday. Our chapter headed down on Sunday to prepare. We had to be in the interview rooms at 9:30am in the morning."

"So, just to give us a little bit extra time, we headed down the day before and then Monday there were, there's four sets of interviews, and that the timeline kind of started from 9:30am in the morning up until four o'clock was when my last interview ended."

"So, there was just a long day of interviews Monday and then there was an opening session later that night and then there was a couple other sessions throughout the day."

"On Wednesday was when the top two from each section got announced and then, right from there, we got taken over into a delegate round where people from our section get to vote on the top two from that section for state office."

"So, I got announced in top two and then we ran over to this delegate interview and, after that was finished, that night, they announced the new state officers."

Dale: "What are some of the responsibilities of being a sectional officer for the Wisconsin FFA?"

Parker: "There are quite a few responsibilities. Basically, almost any kind of agriculture related event, we're invited to go to. So, we're going to be helping out at Farm Tech Days."

"We're going to be helping out at the State Fair. We're going to be kind of going all over the place, depending on any kind of agriculture thing or FFA thing."

"There's going to be a national convention that we're going to head down to and helping out with Chapter duties. So, like every every section hosts their own fall leadership workshop."

"So, we'll be going around the state to every single officer's school and it will be hosting these fall leadership workshops. And then on top of that, we have chapter visits that we'll go to."

"And so I'll visit every chapter in my section and I'll do workshops with some of the younger FFA members and kids and kind of just have, like, a good time with all the FFA members and work with everyone."

Dale: "Can you tell us a little bit about the area that section seven covers? Some of the area schools that you'll be working with?"

Parker: "So, some of the main or larger schools, I guess, would be Wausau, Marshfield, and then kind of the area schools close to Loyal would be like Greenwood, Granton, Neillsville, Spencer, Thorp. That kind of area."

Dale: "How did you get started in FFA? What got you fired up to be an FFA member?"

Parker: "Um, definitely the leadership workshops. I went to a bunch of those when I was seventh, eighth, ninth grade, and I still went to a couple in my sophomore, junior year of high school and my senior year."

"But like, you learn so much through these leadership activities and you get really involved in FFA. And no matter, like, what goes on in these activities, you just kind of out there. You're giving it you're all."

"You're with all these other members that really enjoy FFA and these leadership activities. So, like going to those leadership activities, I learned a lot and on how to be a good leader and how to be a good role model. And I kind of carried that over with me as I grew older, and then it inspired me a little bit more to be a good leader and to take the next step in FFA."

Dale: "What are your personal goals and your career goals that have been built on your experiences with FFA?"

Parker: "Some of my personal goals with state office is to really just get out there and meet new people and talk to people in different careers. I was on the courtesy court for running for state office. We had to do this."

"We got to do this courtesy court thing. And I talked to an advocate for his agronomy. He worked for a company in agronomy, and I talked to him for a good 30 minutes, just kind of about what he did and about the new advances in technology."

"We talked about short corn for a little bit and stuff that I didn't really know about, and he had good knowledge and it was just fun to talk to him, and we had a really good conversation."

"So personally, through state office, I just, I'm really excited to connect with people and talk to people in different fields that I'm not familiar with, and then, personally, I'm just really excited to grow from this."

Tom Odeen with the Loyal FFA Alumni discusses the organization in more detail:

Tom: "Yes, the FFA alumni certainly tries to support the Loyal FFA and the agriculture program. We do it a number of ways. We provide scholarships to graduating seniors. This past year, we increased the amount, so we're giving a total of $4,000 to five different individuals."

"And then we also help by supporting the trips, whether it's to national convention, state convention, any leadership workshops, events such as that. We also cover half the cost of the jackets for the kids and and one of the one of the other areas that we've tried to help support the school is our greenhouse."

"We needed to make some major renovations this past year and close it. And spent some money on that and we bought a milk machine for the school. So, we try to do a number of things at school, as well as in the community."

Dale: "The Loyal FFA is one of the active chapters here in Clark County. Can you tell us a little bit about some of their activities throughout the year?"

Tom: "Yes, Mrs. Donenbauer is our chapter advisor. I believe she's been here about 10 years, and she she has a strong officer crew. They are very active. Help lead those students."

"And whether it's the food for America program, whether it's, you know, other community service, Highway Pickup, you know, I know a number of other activities they do throughout the year and try to encourage students to participate, really, from the middle school level all the way through high school."

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.