Last year, the Tioga County Fair celebrated the return of the FFA to Tioga County with Spencer-Van Etten’s official chartering of an FFA Chapter and Newark Valley’s addition of agriculture to its course offerings.
The celebration of agricultural education led to many questions about which school districts had FFA chapters, when they lost them, and which of our residents were among the rosters of membership.
This year, the Tioga County Ag Society is organizing an exhibit at the Tioga County Fair this to highlight the history of FFA in our county. They are looking for FFA Jackets, photographs, memorabilia, and trivia from all of the chapters, past and present, within Tioga County to be part of this display at the agriculture building.
Items may be donated to the Tioga County Ag Society or loaned for use at the fair on Aug. 5. Contact Michele Kline at michelelynnkline@gmail.com to make arrangements for your artifact to be included in this exhibit.
The first donated FFA jacket was provided by Cindy and Ben Goodrich. Ben was a member of the Owego FFA Chapter in 1961. His jacket will be on display at the Tioga County Fair in the Agriculture Building from Aug. 2-5 at Marvin Park along with a photo of the Owego FFA Chapter from that same year.
Stop by and help identify the young men in the photo. While today there are more females than males in FFA, women were not permitted to join until 1969.
The blue corduroy jacket was adopted as part of the official FFA dress in 1933. To an FFA member the jacket is a symbol that represents FFA’s values. It is a common thread running from chapter to chapter.
The back of each jacket sports an FFA emblem with the state above and chapter (high school) name below. The jacket was first adopted as official dress for the FFA in 1933; since then over three million jackets have been issued.
Be the first to comment on "Where’s your FFA Jacket?"