Three $500 scholarships awarded to seniors

FORRESTON — On Monday, May 8, the Forreston FFA hosted its end-of-the-year banquet to celebrate its members, accomplishments, and to recognize some great community members.

Every FFA member was recognized for their involvement and the top member of every grade level was awarded the Star award. Freshman award, the Star Greenhand Award, went to Kyla Lamm. The sophomore or Star Chapter Award was given to Dausyn Heslop. Junior award or the Star Chapter Junior Award, was awarded to Dylon Timmer. Lastly, the Senior award or the Dekalb Award was given to Daemyn Heslop. Daemyn will also be receiving his State FFA Degree at the Illinois State FFA Convention this summer. He was awarded the FFA graduation stoll, which is only worn by members who have received this degree at Forreston. 

The chapter also recognized two outstanding community members and inducted them as honorary FFA members. The first is Jeff Colloton, who currently serves as the Forreston FFA Alumni’s president. Mr. Colloton has been part of the alumni for many years and has helped coordinate a lot of the programs and events the alumni hosts. The second, Joshua Bolen, currently serves as the Forreston FFA Alumni’s Vice-president. Mr. Bolen helps send out sponsorship letters for the alumni tractor pull which is coming up this year on June 3. The alumni also awarded three $500 scholarships to very deserving seniors. Daemyn Heslop, Katie Bismark, and Alexis Koehl were the recipients of the scholarships. An additional $500 scholarship was awarded in memory of Keith Reemtsma by his family. This scholarship was presented by his grandson Aaron Dallman and was awarded to Logan Miller. 

The 2023-2024 Forreston FFA Officers were installed into their new positions which included President - Dausyn Heslop, Vice-president - Coehen Kirchner, Treasurer - Justin Myers, Secretary - Alivia Miller, Reporter - Josiah Newill, and Sentinel - Hunter Miller. We also took time to recognize our seniors and the time and effort they put in the last four years into our chapter.