Rocky FFA members busy in the community and school

A school year summary of activities for Rocky Mountain FFA 

September

The Rocky Mountain FFA elected the chapter officers for the 2025-2026 school year. The chapter officers include president Sam Loyning, vice president Charlee Welling, 2nd vice president Colten Bitton, sentinel Clayton Thompson, treasurer Dalan Wambeke, secretary Emmillee Wambeke and reporter Jameeliv Brost.

This was also when we had our first livestock judging competition at Casper College. The members did really well and had a fun time looking at amazing stock. The contest consists of eight classes of four different species of livestock – cattle, sheep, goats and swine – then four sets of reasons for some of the classes. 

October

This is the month that the Rocky Mountain FFA had our first competitions. Rocky Mountain had two different CDE teams competing. Those teams were the Livestock Evaluation and the Horse Evaluation teams. Livestock Eval team members were Sam Loyning, Colten Bitton, Emmilee Wambeke, Ciera Reculusa, Hendrik Slabbert, Jameeliv Brost and Charlee Welling. The Horse Evaluation team consists of Clayton Thompson, Ella Pierce, Jameeliv Brost and Treysen Merrill. The team traveled to the Casper College livestock competition in early October and placed as the eighth high team out of 46 teams in the competition.

Then in late October they traveled to the NILE Stock Show, where the Horse and Livestock teams competed. The Rocky Horse Team was the best Wyoming FFA horse team at the NILE. Ella Pierce placed eighth high individual overall in horse evaluation. The Livestock Team finished 13th overall out of 64 teams in this competition. Colten Bitton had the best overall individual score with 64th overall out of 284 contestants. Some of the FFA activities that we did included our chapter going to the hospital during Halloween to hand out candy and other gifts to the young kids at the care center in Lovell.

October is when Rocky Mountain also did their annual Homecoming FFA float. This is where we drove our truck and trailer through the town of Cowley.

November

In November the Rocky Mountain FFA chapter did an aluminum can fundraiser where we raised funds to help those in need that got impacted by the fires. The Rocky Mountain chapter fundraised more than $100 worth of cans. We had our annual Fruit, Candy and Snack Sticks fundraiser that we did for our chapter to raise money for FFA jackets and travel expenses. 

December

In December we had a Christmas party celebration, and we celebrated the birth of Christ in our celebration. The Rocky Mountain FFA chapter Christmas celebration included a white elephant gift exchange. All of the Rocky Mountain FFA members enjoyed this activity. It was a fun way to spread Christmas cheer to all the members of the FFA. The Rocky Mountain chapter attended a welding competition on December 2 that Triffen Jolley competed in in Worland. The Rocky Mountain FFA helped serve dinner for the school board on December 15. Hendrik Slabbert, Sam Loyning and Colten Bitton all helped.

January

In January the Rocky Mountain FFA chapter completed our national chapter application and worked on our state degrees for the applicants. Clayton Thompson and Colten Bitton worked diligently on their state degrees to get the best chance to succeed. The Rocky Mountain FFA members also held a carnival at the fairgrounds in Basin where our members came up with a game to have the 4-H kids play. The game was darts with balloons. The FFA chapter had a fun time showing kids how to play darts.

February

The Rocky Mountain FFA chapter has had a lot of events planned for National FFA Week which is February 21-28. We have our staff breakfast on Thursday, Feb. 26, with announcements over the school speaker throughout the week. Other activities include Favorite Hat Day on Monday, a blue and gold dress-up day with ice cream for students and staff on Tuesday and Boots and Jeans Day on Wednesday.

Then we have our annual career day tour to the Miller Fabrication welding shop. We just completed our FFA Week ag day presentation at Rocky Mountain Elementary, where our officers talked about ag facts. 

March

Currently, our FFA chapter is gearing up for the annual steak dinner and silent auction March 13 at the town hall in Deaver. This is where we begin to auction off the welding projects that students have made in welding class. There will be a dinner that celebrates the achievements that we completed. 

On March 5 our freshman FFA members will compete at the district speech meet in Thermopolis. The freshmen will recite five paragraphs of the FFA creed and be asked questions at the end of the speech. If our students win District they qualify for Regionals, which will be in Cody on March 9. 

April

The Rocky Mountain FFA chapter will have two teams going to the state convention in April. The Wyoming FFA state convention is held in Cheyenne every year. Members of the chapter compete in different contests that help with the membership for next year.