CHAPTER SCOOP

The

Tulare/

Kings Section of

FFA

in the

San Joaquin

Region ofCali- fornia held the

firstannualsection social in Ritchie's Barn.

There was

country music, danc- ingandahula-hoopgame.

"Elvis"spokeattheQuitman.

Arkan-

sas, chapter banquet. It

was

actually a

Navy

recruitingofficer.

Bill Wcilfi'. reporter for Indian River

FFA

in Philadelphia.

New

York, had a pettingzooforelementary^students.

Aftera

community

presentationhythe American CancerSociety, the Higginsville, Missouri,

members

decided tocanceltheir pizza party andcontribute the costofthe pizzaandsoftdrinksto the Society.

Woodlin, Colorado. Chapter has KM) percent

FFA

membership.

They

have 23 members.

And

^{there areonly 2S} students inthehighschool.

The

schooldistricttakes inabout700square miles.

Chapter Newsletter for Mansfield, Texas,

FFA

^is beginning ^{its 1}1th yearof publication. Itdoesa greatjob ofgetting out the

news

and plans ofthe chapter to

members, parents and supporters.

Over

theyearsthenewsletterhasbeena reliable source of

news

forthe

FFA

mauazinetoo.

Many

chapters award scholarships to

members

from alumni or other chapter supporters. In Labette, Kansas, they an- nounj'-d winners ofsixattheirbanquet.

•••••••

InBroi. n,Florida,thealumni

memo-

rial scholar. ^-

named

for the late Pete A.shellwas

aw

^, '-d toDesiree

Jen

els.

Becky Beltz, J(, Mueller and Tahhi Scheets received ovei '.."SOOinlocal

FFA

scholarshipsatWillow, ings,Missouri.

The

parentssupportgroupoftheKan-

sas.

Oklahoma,

Chapterawarded three scholarshipsthis yearto twograduating seniorsandtoacollege sophomore.

•••••••

InSiloamSprings.Arkansas,the

FFA Alumni

heldtheannualchickenbarbeque toraisefundstosupportascholarshipfor agraduatingsenior.

Antelope. Arizona,

FFA

sponsoreda

"pre-fair"fairforanyone showinganani- mal at theircounty fair.

About

45

com-

peted in swine, sheep and steer classes from

4-H

and

FFA.

^Officialjudgesrated theentries.Afterwardshotdogsand

ham-

burgerswereservedtothose

who

judged and showed.

Members

oftheEdison

FFA

Chapter

in

Ohio

rose before the sun on a winter morning to prepare pancakes, sausage, orangejuiceandcoffeeforthirtyoftheir teachers.

Members

ofthe Evening Shade, Ar- kansas,

FFA

built a stage for the high school

commencement where

Burt Reynolds

was

guestspeaker.

Pinedale,

Wyoming, FFA

hadatrash driveonEarthDay.Localcitizenspledged

money

for each bag of trash collected.

Members

picked up and filled 100bags withtrashfromalonglocal highways.

Speakerat the

Hamburg,

Pennsylva- nia,Greenhand

ceremony was

schooldis- ciplinarian,Mr.Miller.

Oak

Harbor,Ohio,

FFA

hascollected

$865forthestate

FFA

foundation

.

A

barn

dance

organized by the Bingham, Utah, Chapter netted $1,000 forafundtohelpa

member's

father

who

hadalungtransplant.

The

Genoa, Ohio.

FFA

Chapter and

community members

processedandpack- aged 24 hogs into ribs, bulk and link sausageattheannual

FFA

Sausage Day,

The

chapter latersold the sausage fora heafty profit.

FFA

inStoneCounty, Wiggins, Missis- sippi, washedthe40carsofthefacultyto saythanksfortheirsupportduringthe year.

Officers of the

New Smyrna

Beach, Florida,

FFA

held an appreciation day fortheiradvisor,Mr.

Jimmy

Harrell.

who

is retiring after 31 years.

The mayor

is-

suedaproclamation inhis honor.

Wamogo. FFA

ⁱⁿLitchfield,Connecti- cut,helda voter registrationday.

Don't let the

summer

go hy without sending ina newsitemabout your^chap-

ter,the

summer camp

orthe

Greenhand

picnic or otherfun ^event organized by your chapterofficers.JustsendittoScoop,

Bo.x 15160. Alexandria.

VA

22309.

44 FFANewHorizons

Sports Champions

Jennifer Capriati

By

ChrisFeaver

She

out^can'tbeing recognized.^walk

^down

^thestreetEverybody^with- andtheirdog wantsherautograph.

Advertising executives stumble over each otherinhopesof her signinga contract.Sheearned

more

than$5

m

^iIhon dollarslast year.

Soon,shewillbe oldenoughtodrive a car.

She is Jennifer Capriati, 15-year-old tennisstar.While mostat 15 areworried about schoolandwhetherornottheirface will break out, Capriati is playing and beatingthetoptennisplayersintheworld while

making

an occasional OilofOlay commercial.

Since she turnedprofessionallastyear, Capriatihas catapultedherself into thetop 10 of the world. But then that was ex- pected ofthegirl

who

dominatedjunior tennis like no other person in history, winning

numerous

local and national championships.

Growing

up in Florida, under the watchful eyes of her parents StefanoandDenise,Capriatiprovedatan early age that

whe was

a player to be

reckonedwith.

When

sheannounced she wasgoing toturn pro,she was placedon the cover ofSpi/rts Illustrated, and she had yet to hit a single tennis ball for money.

Bouyed

by her

amateur

success, Capriatijoinedthe

women's

tourin.

March

of 1990, the

month

of her 14thbirthday, which evenfor

women's

tennisisconsid- ered ayoungage.

Despite the professional competition obviously being

more

difficult.Capriati foundsuccessinherfirstyear.Highlights include reaching the finals of her first

tournament \\\

Boca

Raton. Florida and winningthePuertoRicanOpen. Shealso

became

theyoungest

Grand

Slamsemifi- nalistinhistory

when

sheadvancedtothe finalfouroftheFrenchOpen, whichalong with the U.S. Open,

Wimbledon

and the Australian

Open make

uptennis"bigfour.

She

won

morethan$300,000inprize

money

last year and she received endorsement contracts from companies such as Prince tennisrackets.OilofOlay and TexacoOil.

(Continued onPage53)

Bicycles For Recycling Winners

The _gram ^Goddard

_inRoswell.^Chapter's

_New

_Mexico,

^{BO AC}

_took^pro-

onanentirely

new

twistthisyear.

The

chapterpresidentandvice presi- dentwere asked bythecity toserveonthe

"Keep

Roswell Beautiful Committee."

This wasa

new

initiative that

would

^at- tempt toestablish a city wide recycling program.

The FFA

portionofthe project wasto 1)construct

home

recycling cen-

ters; and2) develop an educational pro- gram thatcould beconducted withinthe school system topromote recycling and concernfor theenvironment.

The

chapter targeted the elementary schools fortheirprimary project so that

younger students could be taught about recyclingand developa life-long habitof recycling.

Chaptermembers

designedthe rules for apostercontest whereeach stu- dentwastodrawaposteraboutrecycling.

In order to understand

how

to teach recyclingtostudents, recycling training was conducted for elementary teachers.

Local

FFA members

assisted university staffwiththisprogram.Followingthein- service programs, teachers were able to October-November. 1990

Chapterofficers

Gena Dupreeand Dawnn who won

bicyclesinthe postercontest.

present recyclingprogramsto theirclasses which werefollowedbytheposter contest designedby FFA.

Nearly 1,900 students in grades

K-6

entered the contesttitled"Recycle With Roswell."Chapter

members

collected the postersandselected agradelevel

w

inning posterfromeach school.

A

city winner

was

selected in each gradeand oneoverallwinnerwasselected byacity-widecommittee

w

ithrepresenta- tivesfromthemayor'soffice,theextension

Hilljointhestudents

council and local recycling

compa-

nies.

A new

bicycle

was

presented to each grade level winner at special school assemblies.

A

^local adver- tising agency has assistedwithturn- ing the overall

winning

poster into a billboard with the winners

name

and the FF.A

emblem

on display.

Several of these billboards ha\e been placedaroundthecounty.

The

other part ofthe recycling pro-

gram

conducted by the chapter was the construction of

home

rec_\cling centers.

These recNcling racks wereconstructed of ^1/2"

PVC

pipe and hold four indi- vidual trash bags so

homeowners

can

sort recyclable materials. These racks weresoldthroughoutthe city for the cost

ofconstruction. ••<

45

You Make ^It Happen

A ^series of articles to help FFA members

get the most out of

life

Celebrate Yourself

As

^we've

^grown

^up,we've foundthatnotevery- onelikeseverything

we

do.Unfortunately,

many

ofus tend to exaggerate thatdisapproval.

We

feel there is something

wrong

not only with what

we

dobutalsowith

who we

are.

So we

started picking on ourselves.

Maybe we

disapprove of ourselves because of our looks or our shape; or ourrace or ethnicgroup; or the

way we

think otherpeopleseeus;orourshortcomingsinmatchingup

towhatparents, teachers,bosses orfriendsexpect ofus.

The

listcango on andon.

It'sasif

some

invisiblelittlecreatureweresittingon ourshoulder,whisperingcritical

comments

intoour ear

—

apeskyguywe'll callthe"Nitpicker."

If

we

put ourselves

down

the

way

the Nitpicker wants usto, we're goingtofeelbad.

Some

^peopletrytoget

away

fromfeelingbadabout themselves by escaping

—

getting drunk or getting high,creating afakeselftohidetherealone,orpulling backintoalonelyshell.

Itdoesn'thavetobethatway.

The same

marvelous, veryspecial selfthat

we

were

bom

withisstillthere.

We

justlose sightofit because ofallthe Nitpicker'sput- downs. Butwithalittlework,

we

canstoplistening to theNitpicker.

Think fora minuteabout what you disapprove of aboutyourself. For

some

ofus,it

may

bethat

we

don't match uptoothersina

way

that'simportanttous

—

in sports,oringrades,orin

making

money.Itmightbethat a person or a group has rejected us.

Maybe we

got turned

down

for ateamorjob. It

may

bethat

we

look differentfromothers or arephysicallychallenged.

It is importantto identifyat least ahandful ofour biggest self-criticisms in trying to feel better about ourselves. Bring them out into the open. Write them down.It'sabeginning.

FFA

New

Horizons isasking some ofthe country's top expertsinmotivationandpersonaldevelopmenttosharetheir ideas ofhowFFAmemberscan achievetheirdreams.

This articleisbased on"CelebrateYourself: SixStepsto BuildingYourSelf-Esteem,"abooklet publishedbytheCor- porotion for Public Broadcasting. For singlecopies of the booklet, send $2 for each to: CPB Self-Esteem, P.O. Box

- 205,Arlington,VA, 22204.

Make

alistofall the

good

thingsabout you

—

a

"CelebrationList."

No

oneinthe

human

race willever be likeyou.

You

havetobe awareofwhat

makes

you specialinordertolove yourselfmore.

In

making

thelist,what

would

yourbest friendpoint toas the

good

thingsaboutyou?

Some

examplescould be: creative, organized, outgoing, dreamer, honest, a leader or helpful.

With your"Celebration List" as afoundation, it's

timetocounter-attackyourself-criticism list. Forex- ample,thatpeskyNitpicker'sattack

may

be:"See

how

yougot abig'no'

when

you askedforthatdatetoday?

Itproves

nobody

likesyou.You'rerotten."

Counter-attack.

Look

at the facts.

Was

the"no"(•£'a//vbig, or

was

^itjust a plain "No,

thanks" and

Illustratedby Jim CarsontorCPB nothing

more? And

nomatterwhatkind of

"No"

itwas,youruniqueselfi^stillthere,

good

^{as ever.}

Take

each of the criticisms and dissect it, looking forthe truth.

Of

course, we're not perfect.

We

have imperfec- tions. It's honest andhealthy to admit them. Put the shortcoming into perspective. Don't exaggerate it.

Decide whetheryoucancorrect theshortcomingornot.

Ifyou haveahottemper,youcanlearntocontrolit.But

ifyou're shorter or taller than you'd like, you can't changethat.

So

acceptbeingshortortall

—

and

maybe

even learnto like yourheight.

That'scalled self-acceptance.

You work

withwhat you've got.

You

don'tapologizefortheyouthat you were

bom

with.

Remember

yourCelebration List?

Keep

itnearby.

Look

atitoften.

The more

you remindyourselfofyour

own

qualities,the

more

youwillbelieveinthem. •••

46 FFANewHorizons

Dress Rehearsal For Disaster When

the Platte Valley, Colorado,

FFA

Chapterdecidedtostagean agriculturalsafetyprogram,they chose a chilling scenario.

What

if a student's vehicle collided with an anhy- drous

ammonia

tankonthehighwaynear theschool?And, whatifthewindcarried thevaporcloudtotheschoolendangering the 408 students

who

attended classes there?

It'snotan unthinkablescenario.High-

way

34, ahazardousmaterials route,runs right infrontofthe PlatteValleySchoolat Kersey.Trafficaroundtheschool,which includeselementary through high school grades,^isoftenheavyasstudents turn off thehighwayintotheschool'sparkinglot.

One

ofthehazardousmaterials thatis

mostfrequently transportedon

Highway

34, aswell as

many

otherruralroutes,is

anhydrous

ammonia.

"When

these kids get an idea, they don't start small," said Fire Chief

Don

Forster.

Once

theyhadtheir idea,the

FFA members

plannedandcoordinatedafull- scaledisasterdrillwithallthearea'semer- gencyresponseteamsto test

how

to deal with such _a major anhydrous accident neartheirschool.

Carefulplanningwentinto

making

the eventas realistic aspossible. Schoolad- ministrators used the event to practice evacuation techniques to

make

sure that each pupil and staff person would be accounted forand

moved

to safety, said high school principal

Ann

Swain.

Thirteenemergency response organi- zations including the Kersey Volunteer FireDepartment andother

Weld

County

firedepartments,police, sheriff's depart- ment,safety patrolandthe

Weld

County HazardousMaterials team,usedthedrill for training.

Parents of school children were noti- fied thatanemergencydrill was planned for the week, butthe exact nature ofthe drillanditsspecifictimewerekeptsecret to

make

it as realistic as possible,

FFA members

reported.

Secrecy reigned the morning of the drillas

FFA members

positionedtheempty anhydrous tank with asecondvehicleon theschool parkinglottostage the accident.

Theaccident scenewaslocated sothat

smoke

from

smoke-bombs

wouldcreate a realistic vapor cloud driftingtoward the school.

Then

the

FFA

notifiedschoolofficials of thedangerandtheycalled"9₁₁."Within three minutes the fire trucks and

ambu-

lance crews from the Kersey Volunteer

October-November. 1990

Fire Department started arriving at the scene. Meanwhile, administrators and teachers sounded the alarm to begin an orderlyevacuation while school mainte- nance workers shut

down

ventilation to

keepthefumes fromentering the buildings.

Outsidetheemergency squads

worked

to create a

command

postas fire depart-

ment members

positioned themselves

upwind

oftheaccidentand begantospray thevaporcloud withalightfogfromfire hoses. "That's the only

way

to contain

vapor from drifting." said

KVFD

Chief DavidWright.Meanwhile,theambulance crews donnedgas

masks

and protective clothingto rescue

FFA members

imper- sonatingcaraccidentvictims.

The

drill was concluded in about an hour, butalloftheemergency teamsplus school administrators met afterwards in the

FFA room

to evaluatethe eventand discussproblems they had encountered.

Schoolofficialsidentified severalv.aysto safeguardstudents as aresultofthedrill.

"Schools always train forfire and

bomb

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