As summer ends and a new semester begins, the Cashion FFA Chapter is looking back on what a compact and exciting summer they’ve had.

Cathleen Hamil and Grayson Stewart began the summer by attending FFA’s famous Washington Leadership Conference.

Cashion’s two members and 103 other upcoming Oklahoma seniors traveled to Washington, D.C., for a week.

The members toured some of our country’s greatest monuments while focusing on exploring, encouraging, advocating and serving.

Both members emphasized serving by preparing food with the Meals for Hope Foundation.

It’s safe to say that these two left WLC with lifelong friends and experiences.

Cashion’s show kids kept it busy in early June.

On June 1-4, members Jakob LaBlue and Nolin Farrar attended McPeak’s Be a Champ Show Camp.

These boys not only learned everything they needed and more about judging, but they participated in exciting leisure activities.

LaBlue stated his favorite non-judging activity was the hypnotist brought in for entertainment.

A few weeks later, Jaydin Malone followed in Nolin and Jakob’s footsteps by also participating in McPeaks Camp.

“My favorite skill that they went over wasn’t something I’ve never done before, but I did learn how to do a better job showing and fitting cattle,” Malone said.

These three dedicated their time and effort to developing better showmanship skills.

From June 15-17, members Maggie Carroll, Emerson Belt, Nolin Farrar and Jakob LaBlue continued the busy bee streak by attending the NOC Livestock Judging Camp in Tonkawa.

During these two days, members soaked in new tips and tricks to improve their livestock judging skills.

Caroline Oakley and Dally Pederson also embraced new skills of their own.

These ladies attended a Livestock Judging Camp, at Connors State College.

They gathered with hundreds of other campers from every which way to partake in one goal: bettering their judging skills.

On the last day of the camp, Oakley participated in the intermediate overall class and placed sixth.

“My favorite part of camp was spending time with the new people I just met,” she said. “However, judging wise I liked the way the administrator of the camp took his time explaining thoughts and placements.”

In early July, members Cathleen Hamil, Caroline Oakley, Dally Pederson and Grayson Stewart attended the fourth session of Alumni Camp.

The camp’s theme was “Linked-communicate to connect.”

During the camp’s sessions, they emphasized how important communication is and the different types of communication.

“My small group was simply the best,” Oakley said. “Every single person just clicked and had a great time. Not only did we just have a good time with each other, but we opened up to each other.”

In late July, Oklahoma State University held its most time-honored summer field days in the country.

The Big 3 Field Day event brings in around 1,900 young men and women to OSU in July to participate in livestock judging and other judging events.

The judging events range from sheep and goats to cattle and swine.

This field day ran from July 17-20.

On Monday, the dynamic duo, Emerson Belt and Dally Pederson, received 12th place as a team in the NOC Sheep Judging Contest.

The next day, the team received 14th out of 50 teams in the Big 3 Sheep/ Goat Judging Contest.

On July 19, Cashion received 21st place in the Big 3 Beef Judging Contest.

On the final day of Big 3, this team received 16th place out of the 49 teams in the Big 3 Swine Judging Contest.

Overall, Cashion’s judging team received 17th place out of the 54 teams who also attended the iconic field day.

To wrap up the month of July, a multitude of Cashion FFA’s younger members attended the AFR Leadership Camp.

The camp’s theme was “Mission: I’m Possible 23.”

Members Emerson Belt, Maggie Carroll, Jackson Drake, Dally Pederson and Keizar Stout attended the camp.

During this time members learned how to be active and effective not only in day-to-day situations but also in their chapter.

Carroll said her favorite event at camp was the pajama party.

AFR kept the Cashion chapter busy and entertained while teaching them good life principles.

The Cashion officers finished the summer with a day of collaboration, new ideas and a guest speaker.

Brandon Baumgarten spoke to the officers on “Planting for Purpose.”

The overall lesson for the day was the importance of teamwork and collaboration.

He also made a point to the officers that they have an impact in multiple areas of life and they need to pursue those areas.

Overall, the officers had an exciting and productive day together and even got to spend time with alumni Wyatt Collins.

The Cashion FFA Chapter was sad to wrap up their last event of summer, but truly excited to start another year.

The chapter is ready to apply its new ideas and goals.