Minden High School’s Future Farmers of America have completed projects for the 2014 Louisiana State Fair.
Each year, the fair holds a competition for FFA members to build projects in agriculture mechanics which includes metal and wood working.
Minden High School agriculture teacher, Paul Lacobee, and industrial arts teacher Douglas Blow assisted students as they prepared for the fair contest.
“Three years ago we were fortunate to place Grand Champion in metal working with a custom tower deer stand,” Lacobee said. “That student sold it for a whopping $2,500. This year students built duck blinds, barbeque pits, fire pits, horseshoe crosses and even a shotgun shell Christmas tree, just to a name a few.”
Blow’s wood working students built oak entertainment cabinets, saddle racks, glass-top coffee tables, picnic tables, coat racks, and birdhouses.
“We teach the students to take pride in their work and present it well when representing themselves and Minden High School,” Blow said. “Each year I have students that spark a hidden talent they didn’t know they had, and it reminds me of how I got interested in woodworking.”
The projects are completed and delivered to the fairgrounds before the fair opens. Once there, they are displayed with other schools’ projects and placed with the best being awarded Grand Champion and Reserved. If a student wins either of the top two awards, their creation is auctioned to the highest bidder at the Louisiana State Fair 4-H and FFA Sale Wednesday, October 29.
All of the projects will be on display and listed for open bids until that date with the highest bid purchasing the project.