Malcom Bridge Middle FFA

We had a blast this week at Summer Leadership Camp with DCMS and NOHS. Our girls and boys teams were both Leadership Team of the Week Runner Up and our boys were also Team of the Week Runner Up!

Ag Day at Malcom Bridge Elementary was a hit. Our Ag class students had so much fun teaching our future bolts all about the industry⚡️

Our FFA chapter members received many awards tonight at the Area II FFA banquet. We have had a great year and can’t wait for next school year.

Congratulations to our 2024-2025 FFA officer team!
President-Christopher Butler
Vice President-Asher Grace Bailey
Secretary-Norah Brubaker
Sentinel-Caitlyn Cramer
Treasurer-Sophia Holmes
Reporter-Elizabeth Morgan
Historian-Sloan Gecsy

We rounded out a fantastic year with our FFA banquet on Monday night. Congratulations on an awesome year FFA Bolts!

We hosted ag day at Rocky Branch Elementary today. Ag glasses were able to teach young future bolts about many different aspects of the agriculture industry. We can’t wait for ag day at Malcom Bridge Elementary next week!

Big news out of state convention today! We had 6 State winning agriscience fair projects, which is the most in the entire state. All of these students will move on to compete at the National Convention in October. Caitlyn Cramer also went on stage today as the Area 2 specialty animal record book winner. Our agriscience competitors included:
Hazel Brubaker and Kevin Joy- Food systems division 2-1st
Asher Grace Bailey and Norah Brubaker-Plant Systems division 2-1st
Allison Anderson and Harper Havick-Social Systems division 2-1st
Ryker Crockett Kostas- Plant Systems division 1-1st
Sarah Sial- Power, Structural, and Technical Systems division 1- 1st
Christopher Butler and Lena Steinkamp- Animal Systems division 2- 1st
Henry Schirmer and Tomas Rodriguez- Environmental and Natural Resource systems division 2-2nd
Virginia Ruark- Social Systems division 1-4th
Sophia Holmes- Animal Systems division 1- 4th
Estella Sanders- Food Systems division 1- 4th
Holden Jefts- Environmental and Natural Resource Systems division 1-4th
Eleanor Pirrotta and Henry Conatser- Environmental and Natural Resource systems division 2-8th

Ag classes worked hard today for Earth Day! 8th grade built us new raised beds while 7th and 6th grade planted spring vegetables in the beds and our hydroponics systems!

We celebrated earth day with our spring mixed planter class. Thank you to everyone who came out to learn with us!

Last week our 8th grade classes got to hear from MBMS FFA alumni, Cody Gerrard, who spoke about agricultural careers and opportunities in FFA. We are so proud of this previous ag bolt and thankful for his continued support of our program!

One of our FFA members, Lena, got to take the trip of a lifetime. Go Lena!

🌟Student Spotlight🌟
Lena Archuleta recently traveled to Washington, D.C., with her grandmother. Lena met with legislators at the capitol to work on new agricultural bills and policies. She attended senate and congressional briefings to help establish new agricultural policies.

We love receiving news like this and are so proud of all of our Bolts who are involved in the community and beyond!

Our chapter hosted a few agriculture teachers from France today. They were able to tour our facilities, learn about Georgia agriculture, and share some of their culture with our FFA officers.

A long and very successful day for our Boston Butt and Plant Sale. Thanks to all of our parents, members, and supporters who helped us to sell and cook over 100 boston butts today. We will see everyone tomorrow for the last day of our plant sale!

We held our FFA chapter meeting last Thursday afternoon. Members competed in a ag-ster egg scavenger hunt with tons of agriculture riddles. The boys came out as our champions. We hope to see everyone at our next meeting on April 23rd!

Congratulations to these 3 FFA members who competed in the North Region middle school record book contest. Caitlyn Cramer earned a gold emblem in the small animal production category. She is also a top 6 state finalist who will compete at the FFA state convention next month. Her SAE project involves work at the school as our rabbit manager. She helps to care for, breed, market, and maintain the rabbitry. Holden Jefts also earned a gold emblem for his work and research on pond management. Virginia Ruark was also gold emblem in her division with her SAE project of raising her own show pigs.

Congratulations to Asher Grace! She exemplifies the last line of the FFA motto, Living to Serve!

We had a blast celebrating National Ag day in the best way with our 1st annual farm tours. Our chapter got to tour and learn from some of the best in the industry. We visited the following:
•UGA Whitetail Deer Facility
•UGA Aquatic Sciences Lab
•UGA Wildlife with Dr. Nick Fuhrman
•State Botanical Garden of Georgia
•William’s Dairy Farm

Our FFA chapter had the opportunity to work with a ton of future Bolts at MBES’s family fun night last night. Our FFA members got to teach younger students about our newly hatched chicks, bunnies raised at our school, bottle fed goats, and how pollination occurs to create delicious fruits!

Shoutout to Maelyn Golden and Lena Steinkamp for competing in the area FFA speaking contests yesterday. Lena competed in Prepared Public Speaking and placed 5th. Maelyn competed in Creed speaking and placed 7th!

Congratulations to our Nursery & Landscape team as well as our Poultry Evaluation teams for placing 6th in the area CDE contests last week. Poultry team members included: Douglas Walker, Christopher Butler, Grayson Streeter, and Ryker Crockett-kostas. Nursery & Landscape members included: Sarah Sial, Norah Brubaker, Harper Havick, and Allison Anderson.

Our livestock team had a big week at this years State Livestock Show! MBMS FFA members that exhibited in Perry last weekend included Lena Steinkamp, Christopher Butler, Virginia Ruark, Estella Sanders, and Elizabeth Morgan. Our big wins included:
Grand Champion Junior Sheep Fitting Team: Lena Steinkamp, Christopher Butler, and Tanner Griffeth
Reserve Grand Champion County group of 3 lambs: Lena Steinkamp, Colter Steinkamp, Virginia Ruark, and Christopher Butler
8th grade Champion Lamb Showman: Lena Steinkamp
7th grade 3rd overall Lamb Showman: Christopher Butler
6th grade 1st place FFA and 8th place overall lamb showman: Virginia Ruark
3rd place overall Yorkshire Gilt: Virginia Ruark
All MBMS FFA members placing in the top 10 of their classes!

Our livestock team will be finishing the season this week at the State Livestock Show in Perry. We want to wish them all the best of luck this week and can’t wait to see all of their hard work pay off in the ring!

Our MBMS show team had a ton of big wins this Saturday. Our members took home the following wins at the Oglethorpe area livestock show:
1st place Junior Lamb Showman: Virginia Ruark
Supreme Champion Lamb Showman: Virginia Ruark
Grand Champion Breeding Ewe: Lena Steinkamp
1st place Junior Swine Showman: Virginia Ruark
Reserve Grand Champion Market Gilt: Virginia Ruark
Our Rabbit Show team had the following wins at the ARBA Southeastern Bunny Show:
Best of Breed English Lop: Caitlyn Cramer with Gus
Best of Breed Netherland Dwarf: Caitlyn Cramer with Fitz
Best of Breed Jersey Wooly: Sophia Holmes with Frida
Best Opposite of Breed Jersey Wooly: Caitlyn Cramer with Huck

Field Trip Friday for FFA week. Our classes took their quarterly trip to the North Oconee barn to learn all about hands-on livestock projects.

On Thursday for National FFA week, we had our monthly chapter meeting with FFA trivia. Our adaptive FFA members also started working on their new garden for their classes to care for!

Day 3 of FFA week was filled with love. We showed how much we love our staff with an appreciation breakfast followed by filling all of our Valentine’s Day floral order! 💙💛 🌹

Our FFA officers kicked off Day 2 of FFA week at Farm Bureau Day at the Capitol. We were able to watch a legislative session, hear from the Lieutenant Governor, and Commissioner of Agriculture, Tyler Harper.

To kickoff FFA week, our officer team met with superintendent, Dr. Branch, to sign the FFA week proclamation.

Congratulations to our very own Christopher Butler for placing 4th overall in the state lawnmower operations contest this weekend! There were a total of 82 middle schoolers around the state that competed in the contest this year. Way to go Christopher!

Our show team has had a great past couple of weekends. Members of the rabbit show team exhibited at the state FFA rabbit show in Perry this weekend. Lamb and Goat showman exhibited at the Fannin Co show and the Georgia Junior Livestock Foundation Expo. Pig showmen showed at the Double Down Swine show, Jingle Bell in Jefferson, and Ring of Dreams!