AFTON — The Afton FFA chapter of Future Farmers of America continues to stay busy after recent months of projects included serving food at Kids and Calves Clinic and making town benches for the Afton Memorial Day parade. Now, they are preparing for Dairy Day on July 18.

 “We look forward to serving state fair lemonade and providing face painting at Dairy Day,” said Career and Technical Agriculture Educator and FFA Advisor Cat Reeder.

"My plan will be to set up one spot at the event and sell our New York State lemonade and hope to have a lot of faces to paint," she said.

 Reeder said the 32-ounce lemonade will be made from fresh squeezed lemons from Frog Pond and there will be a choice between blue-raspberry or strawberry syrup, adding a zing of sugar for the five-dollar purchase.

"It's so worth the five dollars with 32 ounces of sugar and big fat straws to drink it through, it will be really cool," Reeder added, "Refills will be $3."

 "June is Dairy month, so this year, with Dairy Day being in July, we moved our schedules around a bit, but we’re making it work,” said Reeder.

Reeder, who is also the secretary and the educational outreach coordinator for the Fam Bureau, noted Dairy Day is normally in June, a week after Kids and Calves Clinic, and now it is pivoting with Open Farm Day and the Legislative Tour in July.

She said she gets a really good group of kids for the summer, grades six through 12 and the kids go crazy with face painting. 

"Some of the girls want to do spider-man and butterflies, they get so into it, they are adorable," she said. "I'm so proud of them for making the event as amazing as they do.

Reeder said they have talked about making the painting a little simpler but if people are willing to wait, they can have a nice cool lemonade, adding, "it will be a lot of fun."

The funding from the lemonade sales will go toward the FFA activity fund to help the group go to events like state conventions and the state fair.

 Recently during the Kids and Calves Clinic they served full hot meals for the parents of children attending the clinic. The weekend event also helped them raise additional funds.

 "We also raise money for our sweatshirts, t-shirt's and anything else needed like a blue jacke and just spent quite a bit of money out of our activity fund for the New York State FFA Convention in Buffalo,"said Reeder.

Last month, Afton Chamber of Commerce member Judy Hinman reached out to Reeder, requesting something decorative for the Memorial Day parade.

Hinman visited Reeder’s class and shared ideas for some small benches to be put out so visitors could sit and enjoy the parade.

Reeder said they were in the middle of a capitol project with her classroom under construction to create a state-of-the-art Ag education room and they didn’t have a way to get to their tools but they put their heads together and made it happen.

 "We didn't have access to our tools or saws, so the kids found four pre-made benches online, purchased and assembled them. Then they decorated the benches to make them festive for the parade," she said.

 The benches were placed along Main Street.

"What’s going on at the school and in my classroom is quite magical because we are in half of the gym for class, with a divider up, while my room is completely under construction until next school year," she said.

"It's like no other AG room a school has ever seen, said Reeder. "It's going to be so nice."

Reeder also thanked Chobani for their donation of $20,000 which bought a state-of-the-art school garden that includes a green house, smaller mobile green house with solar, and raised garden beds with trellises.

"The garden is almost done," she added, "they really hooked us up."

She said keep an eye out for the Afton FFA at Dairy Day. They will be fundraising and look forward to seeing everyone there.

 For more FFA information visit their website at www.ffa.org.