MOSES LAKE - Participants will be volunteering at animal shelters, putting on an assembly and staying in a locked school Saturday night as part of local observances of FFA Week.

Members of the Moses Lake chapter are sponsoring an animal feed drive at school and volunteering at local animal shelters, said Kyley Lanning, chapter reporter. The chapter will sponsor a teacher-only baked potato bar Thursday as a mark of appreciation for MLHS teachers.

Warden High School will be the site of a lock-in for any Grant County FFA member who wants to attend. The Saturday night lock-in is sponsored by FFA district officers and will include a number of activities before winding up with Sunday morning breakfast, said Charlie Dansie, co-advisor and ag teacher in Warden.

There are activities all week in Quincy, including greenhand (first-year) installation and dessert on Tuesday, an appreciation breakfast for selected community members Wednesday, an assembly and alumni meeting Thursday and barbecue for FFA members on Friday.

The Ephrata chapter is sponsoring an ag-related assembly Friday, including an obstacle course race between students and teachers. Participants will race potato sacks and stick horses (complete with chaps for the stick horses), try to rope a stationary horse and chug some milk, among other challenges.

Farming in the United States in the 21st Century doesn't look like farming in 1920, and FFA doesn't either. The actual farmer-on-the-farm is still at the heart of FFA activity, but there are many career opportunities in agriculture that don't involve planting or harvesting.

"Basically, anything you're interested in, we can help," Lanning said. "FFA provides opportunities to develop skills needed in every career," said Terra Smith, Ephrata FFA co-advisor and agriculture teacher.

"It is obvious that skills for traditional farming are offered, but what is not so transparent are all of the skills students can practice that are needed for lawyers, doctors, secretaries, skilled laborers and the list goes on," Smith wrote. The organization sponsors contests in 32 content areas, she said, ranging from technical skills like welding to teamwork exercises like parliamentary procedure to communication tests like extemporaneous speaking.

Contests also cover business skills, like the farm management category, test science skills in the agronomy category, even test tractor-driving skills.

And that list doesn't even include raising animals for contest, like the FFA participants that show animals at fairs or livestock shows.

"I think it's the biggest youth organization in the world. One of them, for sure," Dansie said.

"It gives (students) the opportunity to apply what they may learn, not only in the ag science class, but also to see and connect between what they learn in math and science," said Wilson Creek ag teacher and FFA advisor Scott Mortimer. "To see the real world applications."

Tony Kern, FFA advisor and ag teacher at Moses Lake, said he's been in a lot of organizations, but he doesn't think any student organization does a better job of teaching leadership skills.

Quincy FFA advisor and ag teacher Mike Wallace said competition gives participants a chance to hone the skills they've learned in class. In addition, FFA members have the chance to earn scholarships and even do some traveling.

But FFA is most important for the pathway it provides for agriculture careers, Wallace said. Youths who are looking at ag careers have the chance to develop the skills they need, he said.

All of the leadership and technical training serve to emphasize the main reason for FFA, Smith said. "Agriculture provides basic human needs so humans can develop other aspects in life such as art and science," she wrote. "People have to have food to have energy to create video games, among other things, and if all our time was spent growing and harvesting food, there would be no time to spend to develop skills needed to do anything other than make food. So, go agriculture and FFA!"