To Infinitely, and Beyond! This was the motto of the 2012 South Dakota FFA West River Leadership Retreat, which was held at Camp Bob Marshall July 10th – 13th in Custer South Dakota. The Hoven FFA Chapter had 8 students attend. This included Tyler DeRouchey, Michael Rausch, Abby Simon, Tara Heuer, Bailey Baker, Shaye Jungwirth, Traci Arbach, and Katie McClure. The Hoven campers were supervised by chapter advisor Miss Noelle Rist. She encouraged them to try new things and meet new people.
Hoven FFA Members at Mt. Rushmore before the lighting ceremony.
The retreat was full of sessions the focused on teaching the students how to improve their chapter in the areas of student, chapter, and community development. Servant leadership was another main focus of the leadership retreat and students were able to to take part in a service learning project to exercise what they had learned. This years service project was helping the Custer community with clean up. The FFA members also attended the lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore.
Along with the 104 students at leadership retreat, there were a few special people helping out. One of which was Seth Pratt. He is the National FFA Western Region Vice President. Seth helped out sharing ideas, taking part in activities and gave some very motivating speeches. Another important person at camp was South Dakota’s 2012 National FFA Officer Candidate Jamie Flint. She assisted with Leadership Retreat and spent time getting to know the members. Members were also able to see and work with Hoven’s very own, Andy Rausch and Darin Stoecker. Andy is currently serving as the State FFA Vice President and Darin as State Ambassador. They did an excellent job presenting and running Leadership Retreat and are representing Hoven well.
There was a banquet held on the last night at camp. There, Seth Pratt gave the keynote speech, and some awards were handed out. Hoven was lucky enough to bring home two awards! Tyler DeRouchey brought home the “Good Helper” award, while Tara Heuer received the “Outstanding Polar Plunger” award. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it is when you get up at 6:30 in the morning and go jump in a lake. You may think it is crazy, but it is actually quite fun! Hoven was also recogninzed with another award during the final session. The Hoven FFA Chapter was named the Best Represented Chapter. This award is awarded to the chapter that has the best attitudes, most helpful, hardest working, and the most enthusiastic. The Chapter received a traveling plaque which will be engraved with the chapter name and year the award was won.
All the students that attended Leadership Retreat with the State FFA Officers before the banquet when awards were given out.
Overall the 2012 Leadership Retreat was a success for the Hoven FFA chapter. “It was a lot of fun and I learned so much! I can’t wait to go back next year!” says. Katie McClure. They learned a lot of leadership skills and have new ideas to bring back to the chapter. I know it will be another successful year for the Hoven FFA chapter.
-By Abby Simon