Edgar FFA shines in spring speaking contests

By Emma Riehle Edgar FFA Chapter Reporter

Leadership Development Events, also known as LDEs, are a part of FFA that you might not know about.

Our chapter’s middle and high school students competed in a variety of these events: Quiz Bowl, Creed Speaking, Prepared Speaking, Parliamentary Procedure, Discussion Meet and Employability Skills.

So, what exactly is a LDE? LDEs are events that middle and high school FFA members can compete in at the District, Sectional, State and even National level that focus on building a member’s speaking abilities.

At the District level, hosted by the Wausau West FFA on January 25, 2023, the Edgar FFA had a member or team place and advance to Sectionals in each event that was competed in.

The Quiz Bowl, competed by a team consisting of seventh and eighth graders, tests each contestant about their FFA knowledge. Despite this being the first year that the Edgar FFA put together a Quiz Bowl team, the team placed second.

Callie Behling placed first in Creed Speaking. Creed Speaking is a freshman-only event where members must recite the FFA Creed entirely from memory, then answer questions based on the Creed.

Aubrey Behling, a sophomore at the time, gave an entirely memorized speech about the amount of dairy farms leaving the industry for her first place win for Prepared Speaking.

Parliamentary Procedure is a team event of high school members where members are given a topic to conduct a meeting about. Members are evaluated on using correct parliamentary law and must present convincing debates on the given topic. The Edgar FFA Parliamentary Procedure team placed first.

The Discussion Meet brings individuals together to discuss possible solutions for real-life agricultural issues. Erica Socha, a junior at the time, placed first in the Discussion meet.

Lastly, I was able to compete in the Employability Skills event, where I placed second at last year’s District Speaking Contest as a sophomore. In this event, I was required to create a resume and cover letter, then complete a 10-minute interview for a job related to agriculture.

At the Section 7 Sectionals, hosted by the Loyal FFA on March 13, 2023, Erica Socha and Callie Behling placed first in their respective events. Both members competed at the State Level hosted at the Wisconsin State FFA Convention in June of 2023.

INAUGURAL QUIZ BOWL TEAM- Edgar’s Quiz Bowl team, which was comprised of seventh and eighth graders, took second place at the District level competition on January 25, 2023. Quiz bowl team members pictured, from left to right, are Mackenzie Mueller, Grace Hargraves, Paige Reinders, Eli Yessa, Brenden Imhoff, Adeline Peterson, teacher Megan Lassa and Alana Kingsley.