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Sutherland FFA donates over $6,000

Paige VanSkiver
Sutherland FFA Reporter
The Sutherland, Neb., FFA Chapter sold t-shirts and raised over $6,000 to help chapters affected by the state's historical flooding replace supplies.
Photo courtesy Paige VanSkiver

In mid-March of this year, a ruinous bomb cyclone blizzard swept throughout the state of Nebraska, causing catastrophic winds and highly destructive flooding in farm areas in the northeast part of the state. This event has been named as the worst disaster in all of Nebraska’s history.

The heavy rains from this storm fell on a vast snowpack with a high water content, resulting in runoff that had brought all time high water marks, and with it, nightmarish consequences.

One of these consequences included the deaths of up to four people in the Nebraska-Iowa area. One of these people included a farmer by the name of James Wilke, who died while trying to save another person that was trapped in a vehicle in Platte County. Another consequence of this traumatic event was that hundreds of farmers in the Nebraska and Iowa area had lost thousands of head of cattle, inherited ruined farmland that would take months to clean up, and had lost homes to the overwhelming flooding. These harsh consequences were estimated to cost the state up to $1.4 billion to repair all of the damages that the farmers had endured.



The students of the Sutherland FFA Chapter had heard all of this news unfold while it was happening and devised a plan to help the farmers in need. Jade Paxton, one of the officers in the Sutherland FFA Chapter, came up with the idea of selling t-shirts to FFA Chapters across the state. The rest of the officers agreed to do this fundraiser, and within minutes, a t-shirt design was made with the slogan, Nebraska Strong, FFA Tough.

Through the months of April and May of this year, the Sutherland FFA Chapter was putting up flyers, taking orders, and shipping these shirts to nearby FFA Chapters across the state of Nebraska, with the help of the other chapters in the area. The money that was raised went towards helping members build back up their schools and SAE projects or helping the citizens in the communities by getting new supplies that were lost.



The Sutherland FFA Chapter was very pleased to get the results that they got from this amazing fundraiser, and they all realized that no matter the situation, Nebraskans always have each other’s backs. Through the hard work and dedication Sutherland was able to raise a total of $6,300 that was given to chapters that needed the help the most. ❖


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