After identifying a perfect opportunity to blend creativity, agricultural advocacy and community service, the Rusk FFA Chapter in Rusk, Texas, hosted its first Texas FFA Convention T-shirt design contest and sale in conjunction with the 2023 Texas FFA State Convention.
Although the contest and sale were new to the chapter, seeking ways to give back and embodying the last line of the FFA motto, “Living to Serve,” were not.
“Our chapter is very community service-based,” says Rusk FFA advisor Madison Dunn. “Along with completing local service projects as a chapter, we organize a full week of after-school community service projects each year — the Rusk FFA Week of Service — and invite our entire school to participate.”
Spearheaded by the 2022-23 Rusk FFA Chapter officers, the idea was to request T-shirt designs from chapters across the state, create T-shirts with the winning design (chosen by the 2022-23 Texas FFA state officers), sell the shirts and donate all profits.
“A total of 27 designs were submitted, and once we had our winner, we held a presale a couple of weeks before the Texas FFA State Convention,” Dunn says. “We also sold shirts at the convention from a booth staffed by our chapter members. After it was all said and done, we sold 1,856 shirts and raised $17,288.”
The T-shirt design winner, Emily Wyatt of the Hale Center FFA in Hale Center, Texas, won a $1,000 scholarship, and $2,000 was donated to the Texas FFA Proficiency Scholarship fund. The remaining $14,288 was split between the Texas FFA Association and Agriculture Teachers Association of Texas scholarships.
“I was honored and thrilled when I found out my ‘I Believe in Agriculture’ T-shirt design won the contest,” says Wyatt, a freshman majoring in art at the University of Oklahoma. “I loved getting to use my creativity to show my support for agriculture, and I hope it inspires others to put their talents to use in a productive and uplifting way, too.”
When Dunn reflects on the project’s success, she points to the outpouring of support Rusk FFA members received from start to finish.
“Lots of people made generous donations, including our screen printer, Dunkerley Designs, who donated all its proceeds,” Dunn says. “We even had a celebrity endorsement — famous bull rider Dale Brisby, a Texas FFA alumnus, purchased a shirt and posed for a picture we posted to our social media, which drew a lot of attention to our project. That was completely unexpected and so exciting for our chapter members. Overall, it was a great experience, and we’re already looking forward to doing it again next year.”
