The Blanco FFA Chapter recently wrapped up an extremely successful fall semester by competing at the State FFA Leadership Development Events at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Local FFA members competed in the Public Relations LDE and placed 13th overall. Team members for this event included Callie Culton, Megan Andrews, Mackenzie Johnson, Tyler Hardin and Ryan Wagner. Including the PR team advancing to state, the Blanco FFA also qualified for State in four other events including Land, Range & Pasture, Homesite and Plant ID. The state contests for these events will be held in April.

In addition to qualifying 5 teams for State this semester, the Blanco FFA also clinched the Hill District FFA Leadership Development Event Sweepstakes Award for the 12th consecutive year after winning 9 of 12 events at the district leadership contests. In all, Blanco qualified 11 teams for the Area VII FFA LDEs. While having clinched the leadership sweepstakes award, Blanco also established a commanding lead towards winning sweepstakes in career development events as well after winning district titles in all four fall CDEs. In beginning the 2012-2013 school year, the Blanco FFA Chapter has already won 13 District Championships, 3 Area Championships and 10 Invitational Championships, while qualifying 15 teams for area competition in addition to the 5 teams that will be advancing to State. In all, 65 Blanco FFA members competed in the Land, Range & Pasture, Homesite and Plant ID CDEs while 49 students participated in 11 different leadership development events. Advisors for the Blanco FFA are Felice and Jason Marek.