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Ripon Christian High FFA sells out Christmas trees in five days
tree FFA
Jay Hoekstra, Ripon Christian High's FFA Sentinel, displays the high-quality, fresh Christmas trees sold at this year’s lot.

Ripon Christian High's Future Farmers of America Chapter had reason to celebrate last week.

No sooner than opening the second-ever Christmas tree lot adjacent to RC Stadium on the day after Thanksgiving, the local agriculture education program sold out its inventory after five days.

“We were super excited,” said chapter Vice President Natasha Smith.

All 250 trees – three sizes of Nordmann Firs were offered – along with other holiday decorative items such as reindeers and wreaths were cleaned out by Tuesday.

According to advisor Megan Dyk, the high-quality, fresh trees were purchased from Noble Mountain in Salem, Ore. 

She indicated that proceeds from the tree sales will help fund various operations of the local FFA chapter and the school's Agriculture Education Program.

“FFA offers endless opportunities for student involvement, even in today’s virtual format,” Dyk said. “Students are involved in Career Development events, where they compete with other chapters across the state on everything from horse judging to natural resources, and various speaking contests such as job interviews and public speaking.”

RC students are also looking forward to attending the upcoming leadership conferences thanks to fundraisers such as the Christmas tree sales.

Smith believed the strong sales from this year was due to the focus on tree sales and the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, with folks looking at possibly another lockdown.

“A Christmas tree is one way of giving people something to look forward to as in happy times,” she said.

A year ago, the RC FFA opened the day after Thanksgiving and stayed open for three weeks while selling 180 trees.

This year, the local chapter was sold out in a matter of days.

“We just tried to focus on selling tree,” said Smith on what a difference a year makes.