Members of the Garden Spot FFA at Lampeter-Strasburg (L-S) High School earned an award during the Pennsylvania Farm Show.

The tractor restoration team was presented with a plaque honoring them for the Best Record Book.

Juniors Rex Giberson, Jackson Allison, and Trent Thomas and senior Jack Ross delivered the presentation at the Farm Show. Seniors Sebastian Delgado and Brayden Welk; juniors Landon Giberson and Braydon Nye; and alumna Ava Immel, communications and marketing lead, also contributed to the effort of reconstructing a 1947 John Deere AN tractor.

"Rex was the chairman of that project, and I was more or less one of the mechanics," Jack said. "The major part of the process was completely doing tearing down and cleaning and prepping of all parts for paint. Some parts were replaced if they were either damaged or just broken or not working. I know there were some things that got sent out to a machine shop."

Rex explained how record keeping works. "Through the FFA, whenever we do projects, we use an app called AET," he explained. "That is a centralized place to log everything. Every time we would work on a tractor, I would go into this app and make a journal entry of what we did and how long it took us, and then through that, we also list different skills that we may have gained. It's just a place to keep everything journaled."

"It was pretty nice," Jack said. "I know Rex did pretty much everything as far as record book went. He was in charge of putting in all that information into AET. For the rest of the group, that wasn't really our job, but what we did was what he put into the record book. A lot of our contributions as the other people that worked on the project went into what he made."

He was happy that he and his teammates brought an award home. "It was very rewarding," said Jack. "It was really good to see all the hard work that each team member put into it; to see the final product and see it sitting at Farm Show is also a really, really cool thing with all the other tractors that were restored."

It was also an illuminating experience. "Being the chairman of it, I'd say one of the biggest things I learned besides mechanical aspects is leadership and leading a team and staying organized," said Rex. "Through the journaling and the record book, that that was a nice place to keep me organized and make sure I'm on the right track."

Garden Spot FFA adviser Katie Ranck was proud of her students. "The tractor restoration project is one that takes almost up to a year commitment from beginning to end and takes the right group of students," she said. "It was really fun to see Rex lead the group and see a lot of our strong mechanical students next to him, stand beside him, and support that project along the way, and then see that hard work pays off with being honored at the Farm Show. It's something that doesn't happen every year, so it's neat when it does."

Pennsylvania FFA holds its Mid-Winter Convention during the Farm Show.

The nine L-S members who earned their State Keystone Degree were William Gajecki, Antonio Franco, Alexis Shaffer, Alexis Swayne, Maddux Harsh, Jack Ross, Brooke Rubincam, Sebastian Delgado, and Maya Coon.

"You have to put in a certain amount of community service hours in," said Maddux, who plans to pursue an agriculture-related profession. "You have to invest or earn a certain amount of money to hit all of your requirements to earn your Keystone Degree. It was very rewarding going through and getting that degree, knowing how much I've put into the FFA through my time to be able to earn that degree."

The 14 members who received their FFA Scholarship Jacket were Keira Suter, Anya Sheffer, Anthony Fantazzi, Paisley Rankin, Emily Simpson, Garrett Thomas, Hewitt Planck, Jackson Allison, Reese Hudler, TJ Bettinsoli, Aiden Glessner, Brayden Welk, Juliette Cummings, and Lucia Proczko.

"It feels good to be a part of something that's bigger than yourself," Aiden said. "You feel like you're included in a family almost, and it's like a sort of like a pride thing. I'm proud to be in FFA."

He enjoys his time in the Garden Spot FFA. "My favorite part is the people, all the connections I make with people," said Aiden. "To me, connections are worth a lot more than just money."

For the first time, a Career Expo was held in conjunction with the convention. "I think there were about 100 different businesses or colleges that came in," Jack said. "It was available to FFA members, and they could go in and they could talk to these different businesses and gain different information about possible careers or colleges that they could go to."

Rex added, "Being in FFA, one of the most exciting parts of the Farm Show is probably the Mid-Winter Convention. Being an older FFA member, being able to sit there and see younger members or newer members receive their jackets is just a special thing because of what FFA has given me and all of my friends. To see lots of younger individuals joining is special because I know it'll take them far too."