District Leadership Development Events
by Makinzie Parsons
Leadership Development Events(LDEs ), the place to face your public speaking fears. On December 11th, the Pierce FFA took 21 members to compete in LDEs in Crofton. Everyone competed in a variety of events, with everyone receiving ribbons. This year there were two quiz bowl teams Trayton Christiansen, Kenna Sedlacek, Peyton Wieting, Weston & Wyatt Stemick, Seth Nelson, Izabelle Grosshuesch, Keyston Pfanstiel, and Angeline Skrdla. Both teams made it to the quarter-finals. There were also two ag demo teams. The first team was Brody Neusch and Travis Jensen who did leatherworking, they received a blue ribbon. The other team was Mark Venteicher and Garret Meier they demonstrated how to turn the hammers in a grinder mixer and received a blue ribbon. Brielle Unseld and Mark Ventiecher competed in extemporaneous speaking. Brielle received a red and Mark received 1st place and purple ribbon earning his way to state. Mark said, “I was surprised that I had won, I feel that doing extemp has helped me with quick thinking and with my public speaking skills.” In public speaking, Larissa Meier competed in junior public speaking with her speech over why teens need to promote agriculture and received blue. Abygail Streff competed in senior public speaking with her speech over immigration and received a purple. In the Natural Resources category, Rebecca Albrecht wrote a speech over a pressing topic in Pierce county, the nitrates within our ground water. She received a blue. LDEs aren’t all speeches tho, Makinzie Parsons did an interview for employment skills and received a blue, and Katelyn Gubbles recited the FFA creed by E.M. Tiffany and received a blue. Congratulations to everyone who competed and thanks for your hard work toward your event.
