Howe awarded chainsaw for taking first at state FFA, attends leadership conference in Washington D.C.

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After taking first in the nation in the  4-H National Homesite Judging contest last year, Dalton Howe, of Redfield, has added taking first in the state in FFA Nursery and Landscape judging to his accomplishments in 2017.

Previously the Vice President of the Redfield Chapter of FFA for the 2016 to 2017 school year, Howe is now the local FFA president for the 2017 to 2018 school year and District VI treasurer. Because STIHL company sponsors the Nursery and Landscape CDE, Howe was awarded a new STIHL chain saw for his accomplishments at the State FFA Convention held in Brookings in April of this year.

"They gave me a certificate and told me to order it at the local STIHL dealership," said Howe.

The Redfield Nursery Landscape Team, which includes Howe, Alan Masat, Zach Jordan and Blaine Rothacker, also took first as a team at the state convention, beating Lennox by about 200 points. The team now looks forward to the National FFA convention which will be held October 23rd through 28th, 2017, in Indianapolis.

On another note, Howe was also awarded a 500 dollar scholarship during the state convention. With the scholarship, Howe was able to attend a leadership conference in Washington D.C. from June 5th to June 12th, 2017.

"We went to the capital and met all of our South Dakota congressmen," said Howe. "We also made 62,000 meals for the DC area for Hope for Meals. [We] put soybeans in the bottom of a bag and then put noodles in and then a packet of cheese. We boxed them up and others distributed them. [Also,] on one of our night tours, we did a reflection and reflected on everything that we talked about that day."

Meanwhile, as Howe looks forward to beginning his senior year of high school in August, he is thinking about the possibility of launching into a career as an agronomist.

"You could do a lot of different things as an agronomist," said Howe. "There are a lot of different areas."

As Howe looks forward to his future, he said he would like to thank his dad for coaching him and his teammates.