Show team earns blue, red ribbons

Members of the Whitehouse FFA show team are Dakota Nelson, Chris Voudrie, Kyle Casey, Ben Edwards and Allen Stone. The team just returned from competitions in Houston and San Angelo.

Recently the Whitehouse ag mechanics team returned from out of town competitions in Houston and San Angelo. The traveling show team consists of five students: seniors Kyle Casey, Chris Voudrie, Ben Edwards and Allen Stone, and sophomore Dakota Nelson. The students traveled with a total of three projects: a custom built shop table, a 32' flat bed gooseneck trailer, and a fully restored 1949 Farmall M.

The trailer was drawn on the latest state of the ar t drafting software by Ben Edwards and built in the school's metal fabrication shop over a period of five months by Chris Voudrie, Kyle Casey, Austin Deweerdt and several others in the ag mechanics metal fabrication class.

The table was built by junior Jessica Huff, and the plans and blueprints were drawn by Allen Stone. The table was designed to be a working surface during activities such as welding and cutting. The top of the table is built with 3/8 mild steel and has a removable cutting space with a slag trap underneath.

The tractor is a 1949 Farmall model M. Dakota Nelson started with the original and through several months of long hours and intensive labor and care, restored it back to original standards to meet manufacturer's specifications.

The San Angelo show is the largest ag mechanics show in West Texas, with over 120 projects competing in this year's contest. The Houston show is the largest ag mechanic and stock show in the state. This year there were roughly 400 projects from all over the state at the contest.

"The projects entered by Whitehouse were excellent and represented the school and the ag program exceptionally," said FFA adviser Casi Bynum.

In San Angelo, the trailer and table each received a blue ribbon and the tractor a red ribbon, with the trailer placing second overall in its class. In Houston, the trailer again received a blue ribbon, with the other two projects being presented with red ribbons.

"These students are tremendously talented and spent many long hard hours building these projects," said Bynum.

While the traveling team is done with competitions, their show season has not been completed yet. On March 27-29 the team will be competing in the Smith County livestock show at the fair grounds in Tyler, and on April 17-19 the team will have their projects at the East Texas Junior Invitational Show, held at Kiepersol Estates. The students would like to invite the community to come and support them and their program and look forward to showing the public what they have accomplished this year.