Parents and supporters of the Star Valley FFA are meeting to resurrect the local chapter of the National FFA Alumni and Supporters organization. The meeting will take place Thursday, November 29, 2018 at 6:30 pm in the Agriculture Room at Star Valley High School. Those who wish to attend can enter the school building at the doors across from the Seminary building there on campus.

“This is a national chapter through the FFA and it’s called The National Alumni and Supporters,” said Becky Vigil, who is a leader in reorganizing the chapter. “It can be parents. It can be community members. They don’t have to have been in FFA and they don’t have to have kids in the FFA. They just need to want to keep agriculture going and to support the agriculture community.

SVHS has had an alumni chapter in the past, which makes the process easier. The new chapter will not need to start from scratch. There is an alumni chapter number assigned to Star Valley FFA. It just needs to be reinstated. To accomplish this, officers need to be elected, and state and national dues need to be paid for each member of the chapter.

“We have 30 days from the time we submit everything to pay dues,” said Vigil. “I was thinking we can do a fund raiser during that month so no one has to pay that out of pocket.”

The role of the alumni chapter is to support the agriculture teacher. Alumni members help with activities and fund raising.

“If we have kids who can’t afford a jacket, we can step up and help them,” said Vigil. “If we have a community service project that the kids want to do and it’s going to take some money to get them started, we can help them with that. Anywhere that the students chapter needs our support, we’ll be able to help with it a little bit.”

“A lot of times, alumni chapters do scholarships for kids, either for college or to go to state convention or to national convention to help pay for that,” said Vigil. “When the students go on trips, we can send money with kids to help with meals when the school isn’t covering that. Some kids have animals that they want to purchase to raise and auction off at the fair for the chapter.”

Alumni members become a chaperone pool when the advisor needs some extra adult support, or they can support by being present at an event that the advisor can’t attend.

“We are an extra voice in the school system,” said Vigil. “We can be a lot of voices to demonstrate support for the organization. We will want to start going to school board meetings, and have the kids go to board meetings and there will need to be an adult there with them to support with that. The Alumni is an extra adult presence when Mr. Warren needs that. And we would offer financial support when they need it. That’s traditionally what the alumni do.”

This chapter will give the agriculture community opportunities to participate in the organization with the student chapter.

“This is for people who have been in FFA before and they love it and they miss it. They can’t put their jackets back on, but they can come and be part of the FFA community, which a lot of people miss.”

Star Valley FFA recently held new officer selections. Past FFA members were invited to be part of a panel to interview and select the new chapter officers. People were pleased to be part of the organization again.
“It gives the community a good way to step in and support the kids,” said Vigil. “And it gives the FFA chapter a little more visibility because we have so many more people in the community helping.”

Anyone interested in being part of the new alumni chapter is welcome to attend meetings. Vigil and Dallas Warren, Star Valley FFA Advisor, invite anyone who is interested to come participate and support the FFA.

“Mr. Warren would like to take all the students to the national convention, and this would give him support outside the school system to do that,” explained Vigil. “That would be a good goal for us to work towards.”
“A lot of the parents are super excited,” added Vigil. “They have great fundraising ideas and things they want to do at the fair and other places. We have a lot of enthusiasm. We need to get our officers elected and committees together.”

SVHS and LCSD2 administrators are in favor of having an active alumni chapter. “Let’s have some blue jackets at the school board meeting,” Vigil quoted administrators. “Let’s have blue jackets in the community.”

“If we are loud enough, then there is no way, when the school system is cutting programs, that they are going to be able to say, ‘Oh, this one’s not important, it needs to go,” said Vigil. “They are going to say, ‘Those kids are everywhere and there must be a million of them because they are at everything.”

“We have a good bunch of kids in the chapter right now and we are excited,” concluded Vigil, who also encouraged 4H supporters to expand their support to the FFA. “It’s the next step up.”

Anyone who has questions can contact Vigil at 307-887-6275 or Mr. Dallas Warren at SVHS at 307-885-7847.