Lake Placid Students Grow With FFA

Touring Lake Placid Middle School's greenhouse with his daughter Thursday evening, Thomas South remembered his days in FFA.

"When I was her age I was in FFA," he said.

After being an FFA member at Sebring Middle and Sebring High, South earned a degree in arboriculture from the University of Florida.

Now his daughter, eighth-grader Heidi South, is an active member in FFA.

"I pursued a career in agriculture and she's going to, also," Thomas South said. Heidi has good grades and won a scholarship. She plans to study for a career in veterinarian medicine.

Heidi South, along with fellow FFA members, including Patricia Wantuck and Kyana Bodon, provided a tour for parents and guests of the school's greenhouse, shade house and hog pen during Thursday evening's agriculture open house.

South will be showing a hog at the state fair and Wantuck will show a hog at the county fair.

"We have to tame them and make sure we can get them around the ring so they won't go wild," Wantuck said.

Wantuck and South go into the pen once or twice a day, including after school, to work with their hogs.

Wantuck is all smiles when she talks about her experiences as an FFA member.

"It's really cool; we have a lot of fun," she said.

A highlight is going to the state convention in Orlando soon after the school year is over. She enjoys the various meetings and activities during the week and then relaxing at the end of the long day back at the hotel.

Wantuck, South and Bodon will serve as tour guides during Ag-Venture on Wednesday, which is the annual field trip to Firemen's Field where the school district's third-graders learn about agriculture with hands-on activities.

Ag Literacy Day is another annual activity day for FFA members, which serves to inform and recruit younger students.

"We go to the fifth-grade classroom and tell them about FFA with the hope that they will join," Wantuck said.

Former FFA member and Lake Placid FFA Alumni President Coleen Hammonds told the gathering of students and parents that contrary to what some believe agriculture is not a dying industry in Florida.

During the winter months South Florida provides the country with 90 percent of the winter-crop vegetables, she said.

Researchers are at the brink of developing many different technological and scientific ways to use agriculture, Hammonds said. There are opportunities to work in biofuel technology, laboratories, research centers and the plant industry to develop heartier plant varieties.

Students in FFA have many career opportunities, not just in the farming industry, but also in cattle, citrus, horticulture and taxidermy, she added.

Lake Placid Middle agriculture teacher Cheryl Humphrey said Lake Placid Middle has 34 FFA members and 115 students taking agriculture classes. Lake Placid High School has 32 FFA members and 110 student taking agriculture classes.