Reber Leads Olympia FFA to Second Place in the Horticulture CDE

 

[April 23, 2020] 

The Section 9 FFA Horticulture Career Development Event (CDE) was held at Tri-Valley High School on Wednesday, March 11th.

After practicing both in horticulture class and outside of class time; four Olympia FFA members and horticulture students competed against other area schools. Bailey Rogers, Carson Inselmann, Ryleigh Hilt and Noah Reber represented Olympia’s team by judging rings of plants, completing a multiple-choice test, as well as identifying various plants and horticulture tools.

Noah Reber, Bailey Rogers, Ryleigh Hilt, and Carson Inselmann with their floral arrangements.

Students also designed and priced a floral arrangement.

The students worked as individuals in each phase of the competition and their scores were added together to get a team score, placing 2nd overall.

Our top individual was Noah Reber. He placed 6th overall.

Bailey Rogers stated, “I really loved working on the flower arrangement. You could make the piece however you wanted within the budget. You were able to be creative with your choices of flowers and colors.”

Ryleigh Hilt completes the plant ID portion of the horticulture competition.

Ryleigh Hilt and Noah Reber agreed, “We had a good time trying something new and meeting new people.” Hilt added, “making the flower arrangement was super fun.”

“I really enjoyed the competition. I was nervous at first because it was my first CDE, but once the competition started and I got into it, it was a lot of fun,” explained Carson Inselmann.

The team was hoping to compete again in late April at the State FFA event, but that has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All FFA events are currently cancelled or postponed.

[Bryce A. Hoffman
Ag Teacher/FFA Advisor
Olympia High School]