Photos and Story by Catherine Stachowiak
The pouring rain that chilly night didn’t stop the students of Kern Valley High School’s Future Farmers of America from holding their annual drive through BarBQ fundraiser Tuesday evening, February 7.
The roasts were on the grill, by the time the press showed up, with students already filling bags to complete the pre purchased meals and directing the very long traffic line of the many donor vehicles.
“There’s a whole group of FFA students who help fundraise the tickets. And then on the day of (the bar B Q) they come up here and help cook everything. And just make sure everything is running smoothly.” FFA member Megan Abbott said that round 5:30pm cars started driving through and the teens were giving donors their food.
“It’s to help fund raise for our state conference in Sacramento in March.” Abbott said,
“This year we sold 150 tickets. I know we’ve been doing this, that I know of, since my freshman year. It’s definitely one of our biggest events.”
FFA students started selling the tickets for the event over a month before the event. Abbott said the students were working since that morning preparing for the drive through.
Allie Lumpkin, flock manager of the FFA chapter who manages their flock of sheep at the FFA farm, which were about to give birth, told the Kern Valley Sun more details.
“We started this process yesterday morning when we got to school just making sure we had everything ready; we had enough bags, we had enough containers, we had enough tri tips, all of that.”
Lumpkin said, “All day we’ve been cooking the chili, prepping the bags of salad, the ranch cups and the butter cups and making sure all of the rolls get into the paper bags.”
Lumpkin was really excited to go to the conference. “I am very excited. I went last year. Last year was my first year. It’s just an amazing experience because you get to meet all of these people and learn everyone’s story there. It’s like a big family there,” she said.
She expects around 28 students, from her FFA chapter, would attend the conference and at least 5000 will be attending from California.
