Greg Winter  representing Garst Seeds, the annual sponsor of the Outstanding Colorado Young Farmer Chapter award, is shown here with representative from the Fort Morgan Chapter including chapter president Matt Keating and co-advisor of the chapter Dennis Bostron. Pictured (l to r) are Mandy Keating, Matt Keating, Greg Winter, Jean Bostron and Dennis Bostron. (Courtesy Photo)

Fort Morgan named Outstanding Colorado Young Farmer Chapter for 2008

Do good deeds and you will be justly rewarded.  This bit of long preached has become somewhat of an informal creed for the Fort Morgan Young Farmer Chapter. took to heart this last year. For its long list of hugely successful activities, many community-based, the chapter members took home the Outstanding Colorado Young Farmer Chapter title for 2008. They received the award at the organization’s state institute held earlier this year in Denver.

Under the leadership of Chapter President Jason Lorenzini and Chapter Advisor Greg Ditter,  the chapter held more than 21 activities and events, including educational tours, community service activities and events designed to bring the members together for fellowship and fun when they aren’t farming. Once you’ve read this group’s 2008 list of accomplishments, it’s pretty clear that these members know how to have a good time doing whatever it is that they are doing at any given time.

From saddling up their half man half horse costumes to do a funny, but educational skit for the Morgan County Board of Realtors and doing a rain dance to boxing food for Caring Ministries and touring Cargill Meat Solutions, the Morgan Chapter is always on the go.

In addition to Cargill Meat Solutions, educational tours also took them to Colorado Interstate Gas, Badger Creek/Quail Ridge Dairy, Morning Fresh Eggs, Front Range Ethanol and the Pawnee Power Plant. At each stop, the group learned something new about a specialized area of agriculture or alternative energy that they had not been familiar with previously.

Community service activities for the year included sponsorship of the catch-it-pig contest at the Morgan County Fair and a barbecue, also at the fair that takes place prior to the livestock sale and draws approximately 1,000 people each year. The Chapter helps prepare food for an FFA ag mechanics dinner that feeds more than 120 high school FFA students from around the state who are in Fort Morgan for the ag mechanics competition. The CYF members hold an annual scholarship golf tournament to raise money for high school seniors who are going to study some agriculture related at college. The chapter offered some special financial support to Colorado state FFA officer  Stephanie Lebsock of Fort Morgan when she traveled with fellow officers to Ireland for a tour.

Two of the most successful and satisfying events sponsored this year by the Fort Morgan Young Farmers is Doink’s Annual Harvest for Life Blood Drive, held in honor of a past member and sponsor, Don “Doink” Lebsock. More than 50 people showed up to donate blood in his name this year. The boxing of food for the Caring Ministries at the holidays, an event that members participate in every year in conjunction with the local Boy Scouts, netted right at 200 food boxes being prepared and delivered to needy families in the area.

Fort Morgan Chapter’s list of activities goes on and on and includes helping sort calves for the roping events during the annual July Fourth rodeo held in Brush, having an entry in parades held in various towns in Morgan County, an annual ladies night banquet as well as a spring rain dance and oyster fry. A new activity this year that was both fun and educational was when the chapter performed a skit for the Morgan County Board of Realtors to educate them about the purpose and power of agriculture. Using their half-man, half-horse costumes, the group brought the message alive to the tune of a popular country song. A poker tournament to help raise money for a member and his son to participate in a Race for the Cure Benefit event in Ireland, a Halloween scavenger hunt, and an annual volleyball tournament to raise money for the Morgan County Youth Volleyball Association rounded out the chapter’s activities for 2007.