Ashton High School - Spotlight Yearbook (Ashton, IL)

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'E 'Tis as-1 on co,vxMUN1'rif Jqgul i Q 'sg .JT ' Q A sl. ' ' ' T 1-11.5 A ' 5 '- 'l' V E-,, Lys - M me H sci-Jo ol. .'3. q gjli. : ,,- 6 ,rQffJ ' M7 i -- il Zo f JF ...H A leafs IPFHF IEW' wr rf ASHTON ILLINOIS By the time of his arrival many boys had made extensive plans for exhibiting their projects at County and State fairs. The Ashton boys again hung up a very impressive show record. The 4 second week in August Ralph Salzman took several of his outstanding Hampshire sheep to the Illinois State Fair. Here he won first prize on his pen of three breeding lambs together with a large number of other prizes. ' Ralph together with a nu ber of other F.F.A. boys won over 3973 in prize money exhibiting at the following fairs: Gregon, Princeton, Morrison. Dixon and the sectional vocational fair at Morrison. Also in totaling up their record books for the year they found that they had a total income of 56,344.42 and an expense of 32,730.86 with a net labor and management earning of 33,615.56 and it certainly looks as if they will be caught on income tax too. After this most prosperous show season all the boys came back te school with a new outlook on life. Im ediately after school began the Fat Stock team began to practice for the coming state contest on Sept- ember l3. The boys were out to make a strong bid fer high recognition in this competition. The team was asked to place eight rings of stock and then give oral reasons before the judge on four of the rings. The boys made an admirable showing by finishing in ninth place out of 402 schools competing, Soon after the return from the Fat Stock judging contest in Sept- ember it was decided that there was enough interest to warrant tlb new judging fields, those of meat and milk. By method of elimination two teams were chosen. The meat team composed of Willis Kersten, John Kersten, and Wayne Nass placed eleventh with Willis placing as twelfth individual in the contest. The milk team of Eugene Steder, Kenneth Page and Ralph Salzman placed twentieth which was good since it was their first attempt. On November 4th the F.F.A. boys held their annual Corn Husking contest on the Earl Ewald farm south of Ashton. Nine contestants were on the starting line when the gun went off. The field was led by LaVerne Kersten and Donald Jacobs but when the final deductions were

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4 T 5 I N ASI-I'IoN cQII,III,IurII'IY I UI IFN, . S' I 'TT m ,, rl-E f f- Y- ASHTON, ILLINOIS IirIj4sfII1 ' S- .fl III' III, S' lg Lg, Fiigfi LICVIOOL 1 the ' 4. '-ar . .'II JL-'nf i -L-v 'T'T'?'T,,j-.ff March 18, 1942 Dear Pete, 'We in the Ag. department thought you would be interested in know- ing what was happening in F.F.A. since you were a former member. The presiding officers this year are: President, Ralph Salzmang Vice Pres- ident, Russell Semmlerg Secretary, Loren Calhoung Treasurer, LaVerne Kersteng and Reporter, Paul Chadwick. On June twelfth the annual state meeting and judging contests were held at Champaign. Ashton's delegates to the meeting were Duane Henert and Russell Semmler. The three teams taken to the judging contest were: Grain, Dairy and Fat stock. The members of the Grain team were Donald Jacobs, Duane Henert and LeRoy Majors. The Dairy team placed favorably but were not in the first ten and therefore did not earn the right to participate in the finals. The Fat Stock team composed of Russell Sem ler, LaVerne Kersten and Ralph Salzman placed in the first ten and earned the right to compete in the finals in September. Also at this contest Russell earned a high honor by being the fifth place individual in the Fat Stock division. Another feature of the State meeting is the presenting of the State Farmer Degrees. These are awarded on the basis of at least an average of 8575 in scholarship, earning of a minimum of 3250 from pro-- jects and on social activities. Two of Ashton's boys, Ralph Salzman and Russell Semmler, were privileged with these awards. ' On July eighth our Ag. teacher Mr. Wayne A. Wise was unexpectedly called into military service as a First Leutenant in the 40th Coast Artillery Brigade at Fort Sheridan. The Ag. students were indeed'sorry to see Mr. Wise leave and all the boys wished him grand success in his new venture. Upon leaving he was presented with a fountain pen and pencil set as a token of appreciation from the F.F.A. boys. on August l our new Ag. teacher Mr. John D. Rosenberg of Thomson arrived on the scene to take over the duties of Ag. teacher and advisor

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ff'-e, ul 11 : - ASHT GN F UMM UNIT Y .flier 3 Hel i ' , ' ' C . F' r C Q fav. -'li-Ylzxj i i 2TW.'fL Zri3 I ' g 1 ASHTON ILLINOIS made Donald Jacobs was declared the winner with the others placing as followsz' Donald Jacobs 15.9, LaVerne Kersten 13.17, W. Kersten 12.66 Patton 12.29, L. Calhoun 12.2, Steder 11.10, Heath 10.50 and Clayton 9.63. One of the biggest social events of the school year was that of the annual Parent and Son Banquet held January 31. Une hundred and four parents, guests and members were in attendance. The Home Ee. department served the banquet. The program was presided over by the President Ralph Salzman who introduced LeRoy Majors with the address of welcome and Superintendant J. C. Bilderback who gave the response. Mr. C. H. O'May directed the F.F.A. chorus in several numbers after which Mr. Rosenberg introduced the guests and the Vice President Russell Semmler reviewed the activities of the chapter during the past year. The guest speaker of the evening was Mr. Frank E. Nangle of Paw Paw who spoke on the opportunities in agriculture for young farmers and gave inspirational advice to the boys. The banquet closed by the showing of colored pictures taken of the boy's projects and the closing ceremony by the officers. And now, Pete, we come to the closing part of this letter and to a part which we think will really warm your heart. we here at Ashton aren't standing still in times like these. The F.F.A. boys are really going all out to help lick the Japs and in two days during the Xmas vacation they collected almost four tons of waste paper and believe me that's a lot of paper. On February 13th they made their second collection and gathered almost three and a half tons. This makes a total of 592.68 taken in, which will be invested in Defense Bonds. So you can see that we are behind you 1001. Now I think I'll have to close this letter but we sincerely hope that you have enjoyed hearing from the Ag. department. . ' With best wishes, The F.F.A. Boys