The months of hard work put in by a few Panorama FFA students on their Career Development Events unfortunately won’t pay off as expected at the state convention this weekend, though they look forward to future events.

The 92nd Iowa FFA Leadership Conference in Ames was cancelled because of COVID-19, but the Panorama FFA members who qualified hope to still be judged virtually. The students who qualified from the district convention were sophomore Dylan Ford who received a Gold rating and earned second place in chapter website, junior Reagan Gibson who received a Gold rating in ag sales and earned first place, while senior Molly Simmons received a Gold rating and earned third place in extemporaneous speaking and was named an alternate for state.

In competing at the sub-district and district conventions, Gibson says she really enjoyed the challenge of closing a sale and all the conversation that lead up to it with the judges, “I just kind of experimented with ag sales before but this was the first time I’ve ever actually done it for a contest, and I had a lot of help to get to the point I’m at. I had lots of practice with my advisor Mr. Hameister and my former advisor Mr. Babcock, Guthrie’s advisor Jim Calvert and one of my friend’s father John Hanson and my dad.”

As for other typical spring happenings for the Panorama FFA chapter, they’re working out the logistics of still having their annual plant sale, and they look to having their banquet sometime in June or July. You can hear more from those who qualified for state in today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program on air and at raccoonvalleyradio.com.