Christmas trees, wreaths, dairy products, poinsettias and specialty goods — oh my! For more than 60 years, the Housatonic Valley FFA Chapter in Falls Village, Conn., has integrated an annual holiday market into its agricultural education curriculum.
FFA members learn valuable skills by preparing and marketing items such as handmade wreaths.
“From a classroom aspect, we’re learning about job skills like customer service and managing budgets as well as how to make a product and manage point of sale,” says Kara Franks, 2023-24 Housatonic Valley FFA president. “As an FFA member, you’re putting hours into the store making wreaths, bringing in greens from around your house or selling trees to community members.”
Each class has a unique responsibility in preparing for the market. The floral design classes assemble wreaths and tie bows, while ag mechanics students construct structures to display the precut trees to customers and the plant science classes grow poinsettias. Students are required to work at least eight hours in the market outside of class time to receive a satisfactory grade and complete tasks within the wreath, tree, decorating or sales departments of the operation.
Community Tradition
The Housatonic Valley FFA holiday market dates to the 1940s, when the chapter assembled wreaths for community members from custom orders. Mark Burdick, the chapter’s retired advisor, also remembers planting spruce trees on the school grounds in the 1970s during his student teaching assignment at Housatonic Valley. He says the market has experienced many changes during his 40-year teaching career.
The Housatonic Valley FFA holiday market has serviced its Connecticut community for more than 60 years.
“During the sale, members would take customers out to pick a tree and cut it,” Burdick says. “With the customer load, it became unwieldy, and we didn’t have the land to keep up with the sales. It’s turned into a precut retail sale because the support was just off the charts.”
Exceptional support meant the chapter needed to find more goods to fill the storefront. Members created partnerships with Hudson Valley Fresh, a farmer-owned dairy company, for eggnog and yogurt products, in addition to Cabot Creamery Cooperative to source cheeses and local farmers who supply pure Connecticut maple syrup.
The chapter also calls on community members, alumni, families and supporters to help during holiday production nights to make handmade holiday goods such as wreaths, swags, holiday cemetery boxes and kissing balls. FFA members from the Pine Plains FFA Chapter in New York also drive across state lines to lend a hand as the mechanics shop is converted into an assembly line to construct 100 wreaths in a single evening.
“This kind of support just blows my mind,” Burdick says. “The members are running their own business, learning the business practices, customer relations and retail. I think it resonates with a lot of people and they support it.”
A Culture of Service
At the end of the season, remaining precut trees are donated to individuals and families in need.
Selling more than 850 Christmas trees and 800 wreaths during a four-week sale is no easy feat. It takes the work of 180 FFA members, four FFA advisors and a community to rally around the chapter for a successful fundraising event.
The six-figure proceeds raised by the holiday market fund an array of student experiences. These include attending national convention, covering costs for leadership conference registrations and funding postsecondary education scholarships as well as a national exchange program that sends Housatonic Valley FFA members across the country to learn from other chapters.
At the end of the sale, Housatonic Valley FFA members choose to reinvest this support in their community by donating trees, wreaths and holiday goods to families in need. They also donate financially to each of the five local food banks and contribute to the Jane Lloyd Fund, an organization that provides financial support to local cancer patients and enables them to stay in their homes during treatment.
After watching her older siblings participate in the holiday sales unit, Franks is grateful to be part of the decades-long mid-Atlantic history. “The tradition is really special to me,” she says.
For more information on the Housatonic Valley FFA holiday market, including its history and an online store, visit housatonic-valley-ffa.square.site/.
