Forest Education Night becomes award-winning project for Granton FFA

By Abby Schoessow, Granton FFA Granton FFA’s 3rd Annual Forest Education Night was held on Saturday, Oct. 23 in the Granton School Forest. This year’s theme was “Camp Granton,” a summer camp theme.

Although the event is geared toward elementary students, we saw people of all ages getting involved in the activities, which was wonderful! The event offered many different stations including first aid, fire building, and a STEAM station.

I hosted a station on horses. I taught about the different types of tack or equipment used in riding and why some tack was very important to use. I also explained the difference between English and Western riding. I brought in my saddles and bridles as well as different types of bridles so I could show the differences between them and how the changes might benefit someone riding with that particular piece of equipment.

Other stations taught children about the food pyramid and allowed each visitor to make trail mix, taught how to apply a splint, and even how to build a campfire and sing campfire songs.

The Forest Education Night was also a great way for children to see our school forest set up for the Haunted Forest, without the scariness of being in the dark. Free-will donations were collected at the conclusion of the event and went toward our fundraising efforts to build an animal lab at school.

Our chapter is very proud of this event because the Forest Education Night was selected as a Top 10 Finalist in the area of Growing Leaders, naming Granton as a Premier Chapter at the National FFA Convention. Our chapter was recognized on stage and it was an incredible opportunity for our small town to receive recognition at the national level of an activity that we created.