FFA students earn awards at San Antonio

Kyle Casey, Ben Edwards and Chris Voudrie built a 32' gooseneck trailer. The young men began construction on the trailer in September and finished it a few days before the show.

Students from Whitehouse FFA recently competed in one of the largest agricultural mechanics contest in the state. The students have been working on building the projects since school started in September.

A total of three entries were carried to San Antonio recently and judged against similar projects built by students from across the state of Texas. The projects entered into the competition by Whitehouse included a 32' flatbed canary yellow gooseneck trailer, a fully restored 1949 Farmall M tractor, and a custom-designed shop table.

Kyle Casey, Chris Voudrie, and Ben Edwards showed the 32' gooseneck trailer. The young men began construction on the trailer in September and finished it a few days before the show. The trailer is custom designed, with a tongue in groove white oak floor, a 27' deck, and a 5' dove tail.

The neck of the trailer was engineered to be four inches taller than most goosenecks to take into account clearance of the bed of the truck when encountering unexpected elevated obstacles.

Allen Stone traveled to San Antonio to show a custom-designed shop table built by Jessica Huff. Aaron Cheek designed the blueprints on the computer.

The tractor was restored by Dakota Nelson, a sophomore at Whitehouse High School. The tractor is a 1949 Farmall M. The restoration took about four months of work. Dakota adjusted the valves, checked the clearance for rod bearings, re- built the carburetor, wet sanded, and repainted it.

The shop table was designed as a work surface to catch slag from activities such welding and cutting. The table was built by Jessica Huff, and Aaron Cheek used a computer program to draw the blue prints and design. Allen Stone traveled to San Antonio to represent the group. The table has a custom-designed wildcat with the Whitehouse FFA emblem and logo on the working surface.

"All of the students that worked on these projects throughout the year and that traveled with the show team to San Antonio spent tremendous amount of time and effort and fabricated superb projects," said FFA sponsor Casi Bynum. "They represented Whitehouse FFA, Whitehouse High School, and today's youth as a whole exceptionally well. These young people deserve to be congratulated on a job well done."

Dakota Nelson shows off her restored 1948 Farmall tractor that she showed at San Antonio. Dennis Brown from the Frito Lay company presents Troup High School with a computer donated to the school. Computer for Kids Program is a joint effort between Frito Lay and Wal-Mart Supercenter on Troup Highway. Receiving the gift for the high school is Executive Student Council President Kaci Braswell and Executive Vice President Casey Smith.