While much of the Titus County Fair was cancelled in 2020, COVID-19 did not keep the Mount Pleasant ISD FFA students from competing and showing their animals and ag mechanics projects.
Most of the students had been raising and working with their animals and creating their projects for months, so they, along with their instructors, were grateful for the opportunity to present all they had worked on and learned during the pandemic. In the end, MPISD students brought home four Grand Champion banners, three reserve Grand Champion banners, one Showmanship banner, and a host of other placements and awards.
MPHS junior Cade Woods won Grand Champion Broiler.
MPJH eighth-grader Kinley Lowry won Grand Champion Rabbit with MPHS freshman Genevieve Rubio earning Reserve Grand Champion Rabbit and Senior Showmanship in the Rabbit Division.
Wallace Middle School sixth-grader Bowdrie Priefert won Grand Champion Hog and his brother, Tucker Priefert, a third-grader at E.C. Brice Elementary, won Reserve Grand Champion Hog.
MPHS junior Sarah Godfrey took home the Grand Champion banner for her floral arrangement while junior Codi Dennis won Reserve Grand Champion in Floral Design.
MPHS junior Emma Aston won second place in her division with her fire pit for the Ag Mechanics Contest.
“Many of our students made the sale with their project or animal which is a huge accomplishment,” said Blake Rice, MPHS Ag Science Coordinator. “The students have had these projects for months juggling school, a pandemic, and caring for something other than themselves. Our FFA students put in many hours of preparation from grooming and feeding their animals to training them to walk and set up perfectly. Ag Mechanics students worked in the shop in August when school started and put forth effort when the temperature was almost unbearable. I enjoyed seeing our students work and build a skill they can keep with them after school and hopefully into a career one day. The effort put in by the other Ag teachers were key in our successful endeavor during the Titus County Fair. There were many late nights, early mornings and hours of practice in between.”
MPISD Ag instructors include Susie Hearron, Meagan Raine, Christi Lowry, Slatyr Hunnicutt, and Blake Rice.
Pictured:
1. Cade Woods
2. Kinley Lowry and Genevieve Rubio
3. From left: Tucker Priefert, Boone Priefert, Bowdrie Priefert
Back: Nick Riecke