FFA Sentinel

PELL CITY FFA

Rocking Along!

BY JOSHUA BRYAN

The Pell City FFA Alumni Bulls on the Lake Rodeo is held annually during the third weekend of July at the Pell City Sports Complex. Sitting right on the shores of Logan Martin Lake, our rodeo environment is truly unique and attracts professional riders from across the country, while also supporting and benefitting the Pell City FFA Chapter.

The Pell City FFA Chapter is rocking along with another busy year! Our year “started off” with our annual PCFFA Officer Leadership Camp. Many state FFA associations across the country have leadership camps where FFA Members from chapters across their respective states can send their FFA officers to undergo leadership training and prepare for their upcoming year of service. This has led us to form and adapt our own FFA camp for our officers every summer to help further develop our chapter leaders. Not only does this week directly benefit the chapter officers, it also impacts the entire Pell City FFA Chapter as we will coordinate and collaborate together to write our yearly Program of Activities, which serves as a guide for our chapter activities for the upcoming year. During FFA Officer Leadership Camp 2022, chapter officers and advisers spent a week in the Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This week was filled with leadership training and development, team building activities, social interactions and personal growth ventures, as well as countless other planning and growth encounters.

Pictured above is a check presentation on behalf of the St. Clair County Farmers Federation and St. Clair County Commission to assist in the purchase of a livestock trailer for the Pell City FFA Chapter. From left to right are PCFFA Treasurer Bailey Baker, PCFFA Vice President Gavin Santiago, ALFA Organization Director Steven Blackmon, St. Clair Farmers Federation Board Member Roland St. John, St. Clair County Farmers Federation President Matt Smith, PCFFA President Ciara Bradberry, County Commissioner Tommy Bowers, County Commissioner Jeff Brown, PCFFA Alumni President Tori Castleberry, PCFFA Reporter Anna-Brooke DeLoach, PCFFA Sentinel Garrett Knight, and PCFFA Adviser Ben Castleberry.

Our next undertaking for the year, according to our Program of Activities, was the 6th Annual Pell City FFA Alumni Bulls on the Lake Rodeo. Several years ago, Pell City FFA Alumni and Supporters were approached by the Pell City Fire Department about potentially taking over running the rodeo. And to say that our hard-working FFA Alumni chapter hit the ground running with this rodeo would be an understatement! Partnering with Mr. Mark Hale and Triple H Bucking Bulls, Pell City FFA Alumni have been able to run and produce this professional rodeo event ever since taking it over and it has been such a great event for our community, while also benefiting our FFA Chapter financially. In this year's event we had professional bull and bronc riders from all across the country, which included four-time world champion bareback rider Josh Cragar! This year we were able to add a youth rodeo event on Friday night, which added a special feel to this year's production. Youth competitors, as well as local youth, regardless if they had rodeo experience or not, were able to enter events and compete alongside the more experienced youth competitors. This event is a blessing for our community and FFA chapter because it provides a great night of family-friendly entertainment for our local Pell City community, as well as serves as our sole fundraiser for our FFA Alumni chapter which is a massive financial supporter of our FFA chapter.

Pictured above is Pell City FFA’s 24’ Barrett Aluminum Livestock Trailer. Now students, regardless if they have their own personal livestock trailer or not, can raise and show a livestock project.

With a new school year comes a new “show season” for the Pell City FFA Livestock Team. Under the direction of PCFFA Advisor and Ag Teacher Ben Castleberry, several FFA Members raise and exhibit livestock projects across the Southeast. This year we have members showing hogs and lambs. These motivated students apart from this team show great dedication to their Supervised Agricultural Experience projects by being committed to working with their animals daily. Students are the sole operators of their projects where they are responsible for managing feeding operations, record-keeping, facility maintenance, skin and hair maintenance, as well as countless other aspects of livestock production. This year, with the generous support of the PCFFA Alumni, the St. Clair County Farmers Federation, and County Commission, we were able to purchase a 24’ Barrett Aluminum Livestock trailer. PCFFA has never owned their own livestock trailer and with the purchase of this trailer the burden of members having to provide their own transportation for their livestock projects is removed. We look forward to a great year! Forever Blue!