The Botetourt County FFA Alumni Association Executive Council met on Monday, Dec. 10 for its quarterly meeting. One of the items on the agenda was to draw the four lucky names that would be the recipients of the Beef raffle. For that honor we had Chandler Smith, son of James “Peanut” Smith of the executive council. The winners were Anna Strickland, Charles Johnson, Suzanna Mejia and Phyllis Elmore. Each of them received more than 200 pounds of beef including hamburger, various steaks and roasts with a retail value of more than $1,000 each.

To attain the meat, the Alumni Association purchased one of the winning animals at the Virginia Youth Livestock show in Harrisonburg  and had it processed at Virginia Tech by the Meat Science program. We would like to express a special thanks to Andy Seibel and Kate Lawrence for arranging delivery of the meat.

The Council also planned its annual membership drive, which will start in January 2013, with contacts being made to all current Alumni members and its first-ever Alumni Banquet, which is planned for Feb. 4 at Lord Botetourt High School. The Banquet will include a meal for all in attendance updates from all of the local FFA and 4 H chapters, and a presentation from Josh Pinkard of Blue Ridge, who is currently serving as the Virginia FFA Sentinel, on his trip to Argentina.

The Botetourt County FFA Alumni would like to thank everyone that sold and/or purchased tickets supporting our organization.

FFA Alumni play a very important part in keeping agricultural education and FFA programs in our local schools. FFA relies on its alumni to garner support for FFA from their local communities, raise funds for chapter activities and scholarships, assist at FFA leadership camps and conferences, and much more.

– Submitted by Stuart Byrd, Lord Botetourt High School FFA