Raising The Barn

AVON PARK - Volunteers, students and prison inmates are finishing up two new Avon Park Future Farmers of America barns at 1180 E. Winthrop St., which are now "90 percent complete," according to FFA Alumni Association members.

The new structures would allow Avon Park high and middle school students to hold their pigs and cattle without having to borrow a spare acre from friends outside of the city.

Even though all three high schools have agriculture students who raise farm animals for show at events such as the Highlands County Fair, Avon Park never had its own barn.

Before August, when the students need to weigh in their animals for the next Highlands County Fair, they will have 24 hog and 12 cattle pens for those who don't have enough land to raise the livestock.

FFA Alumni President Sally Perry said the cattle barn will have its first steers and heifers June 22, the day of the planned ribbon-cutting ceremony.

"They've been waiting," Perry said of the FFA students. "I had five of them sign up for the hog barn."

Aside from some landscaping and cleaning, the last major part of the project are the driveways.

The effort to get the barns installed was bullish. Over the course of 10 years, the FFA looked for contractors, sought out the 2.5 acres of land needed for it, rebuilt and auctioned off tractors, ran fundraisers and lobbied local businesses for help.

A refurbished tractor earned more than $11,000 late February, and the FFA raised about $45,000 over the past two years.

Perry said the FFA Alumni had $175,000 from the county to pay for the expenses and the contractors, but when they were ready to build last year, the estimates doubled to almost $600,000.

So, they thought, "we'll do it on our own."

The work on the barn began last June on a 2.5-acre plot of donated land near the county's refueling station east of the city. Several FFA Alumni volunteers hand-built the pens, while some contractors donated piping and other materials for the project.

As of Sunday, Perry said the FFA has about $25,000 more to raise to cover the expenses on the barns. With the county and their fund-raising, they managed to do with $215,000.

Outgoing FFA Vice President Michelle Sedlock said the June 22 ceremony, which will happen to offer free hamburgers for the crowds, will be a "thank you" to their own volunteers, and it is open to the public.

According to Perry, the FFA has about 140 students in Avon Park, and approximately 50 of them raised livestock this year.