The Andes Central FFA students traveled to Lennox this past week for their last Career Development Event (CDE) competition before the state competition. Those that qualified for the state competition are Emery Bultje in Floriculture, Madeline Derry in Floriculture, Marin Bultje in Horse Judging, Callie Bergin in Horse Judging, Riata Bultje in Horse Judging and Abigail Svatos in Natural Resources. Emery Bultje and Madeline Derry advanced to the state CDE FFA competition to be held April 18th - 20th.

Emery Bultje

Emery Bultje is the daughter of Darci and Brice Bultje. She is a junior at Andes Central. The event that Emery qualified for the state CDE competition is Floriculture. The Floriculture event requires the participant to make a flower arrangement from a scenario, solve a ten-question problem solving exam, take a 50-question exam and to identify 50 plants.

Emery picked this event because she thought it would be fun and slower paced than livestock judging. What really piqued her interest in the event was getting to be around flowers for its entirety, so she thought why not try it. Emery’s favorite part of being in FFA are the bus rides to the CDE events and actually participating in them. Most of the CDEs that Emery has participated in have been floriculture. The only other events that she has participated in was livestock judging which has included general livestock judging and horse judging.

Emery has also competed in the Leadership Development Events (LDE). She enjoys participating in the employment skills event, but is planning on trying something new next year for the LDE competition. Emery first joined FFA because her sister, Riata, was a member and she made it seem like it would be a fun experience. She is very glad that she did because she loves being a part of FFA and everything they do is fun. When asked what she would tell someone who is a non-FFA member about joining, Emery says just do it. FFA is not for everyone, but if you put in the work, you will succeed. Being able to interact with other FFA members and participating in the numerous events offered makes it completely worth it.

Madeline Derry

Madeline Derry is the daughter of Chris and Jackie Derry. She is a freshman at Andes Central. The event that Madeline qualified for state in is Floriculture. As with Emery, the event has the same requirements. Floriculture is the only event that Madeline has participated in for CDEs. For the LDE events, Madeline competed in Agricultural Issues. Madeline joined FFA because she had heard many good things about FFA from other members and since joining has enjoyed being a part of the organization. One thing that Madeline would tell non-FFA members would be that FFA gives life skills that you cannot gain from other school activities.

Congratulations to the state CDE competition qualifiers! Best of luck in at the state competition.