May 21, 2019

Cottondale FFA 2019 Banquet a Tremendous Success

The full banquet photo album can be found here.

The banquet livestream can be found here.

The Annual Awards and Appreciation Banquet of the Cottondale FFA Chapter was held May 13th, 2019 at the Rivertown Community Church in Marianna, Florida. The banquet was a huge success with more than 340 people in attendance. The theme was "Corduroy Sensations.” The banquet began with recognition of “local corduroy sensations” or people who were in yhe FFA at one point and are in positions of leadership now. Following that was opening remarks from the Cottondale FFA President, Blayton See, followed by the pledge of allegiance. Principal, Ken Granger, gave the Cottondale High School Welcome and Florida FFA Area 1 state Vice President Dellon Barber gave the official Florida FFA Welcome. After the opening speeches, Addison Griffin, Cottondale FFA Chaplain, said a prayer and then the attendees were presented with a dinner of smoked steaks, mashed potatoes, green beans, a roll, dessert, and tea. A special thanks to the Cottondale Senior Beta Club, as they provided outstanding service to the guests and members of the banquet. The Cottondale FFA chapter would also like to thank Skins and Bubba restaurant and the Marianna High School Culinary Department for cooking an outstanding meal, which was enjoyed by all. During dinner, Kasey Lathan and Kalina Torres performed several songs to the audience. After the meal, members of the Cottondale FFA were recognized for the outstanding year they helped create. A video was presented that included all this year’s Career Development Events and events our chapter held and attended. After the video, the following members were recognized.

➢ This year’s Star Chapters winners were:

· Star Discovery – Rayleigh Carter

· Star Greenhand – Josh Scurlock

· Star Chapter – Addison Griffin

➢ Those who will receive their State degrees at the FFA State Convention are: Lillie Livingston and Blayton See.

➢ Caleb Reed will also be recognized at the state convention as an American Degree recipient which he will receive his degree and pin this fall at the National FFA Convention.

➢ The $1,000 and $500 Alumni Scholarships were awarded to:Blayton See ($1,000) and Scotlynn Lewis ($500). Cottondale FFA would like to thank the Cottondale Alumni for their continued support.

➢ The DeKalb Leadership award was presented to Joey Jackson.

➢ The Cottondale FFA officers recognized and presented this year’s honorary degrees to Gail Jeter and Jennifer See for their support to the Cottondale FFA program.

➢ Mr. Scurlock recognized several middle and high school members for exceptional skills learned that year such as growth, excellence, and leadership.

➢ Senior Officers Sommer Gurganus, Joey Jackson, Carl Young, Kayley Turner, and Blayton See presented the audience with their retiring addresses.

The 2018-2019 FFA Officer team was presented and these officers are:

· President- Josh Scurlock

· Vice President- Addison Griffin

· Secretary- Hanna McClain

· Treasurer- Lillie Livingston

· Reporter- Rayleigh Carter

· Sentinel- Taylor Dumas

Kenny Griffin closed the evening with a live auction, followed by a presentation of a new tool box to advisor Stan Scurlock by the officer teams.

The Cottondale FFA Chapter would like to thank all of the Gold and Platinum Sponsors for their support pf the Cottondale FFA:

•Platinum: