During the first Montgomery County High School FFA chapter meeting of the 2026-27 school year on Aug. 26, co-adviser Amanda Sullivan made a big announcement.

The chapter recently received a $150,000 grant from Google that would be used to upgrade equipment and lab resources to prepare students for future careers in agricultural education. Google is building a data center outside of New Florence and invested $15 billion in the project.

“We talked to our advisory committee about this,” Sullivan said. “We talked to a lot of other people. It seems to be pretty positive from everyone that we talked to. It doesn’t matter what side of the data center people are on. It seems to be pretty positive about us getting that money.”

Sullivan stressed that the money will not be used for FFA activities, such as ski trips. The chapter will continue to hold fundraisers for any activity.

“We strongly, strongly, strongly believe and, I think our community also believes this, is that you guys should work for our fun stuff that we go into,” Sullivan said. “We do not get that stuff for free. Part of our motto is doing to learn, earning to live and living to serve.”

The chapter plans to spend its funds on updating its equipment in the woodshop and metal shop and getting a new dishwasher in the meat lab.

“We’re not spending it all like right away,” said Sullivan, who shares adviser duties with Mary Leykamp. “We’re stretching it out. We’re going to apply for some grants so we get more bang for our buck.”

Sullivan said the chapter is also looking at offering SAE (supervised agricultural experience) grants.

“That money would go to you to help start your SAE or expand your SAE as well,” she said. “That information will be coming out soon about what those expectations will be. We’re still getting that nailed down.”

The meeting was held outdoors, next to the Montgomery County baseball field. An ice cream social was held before the meeting. After the meeting, members got to have some fun with some slip-and-slide kickball.

A total of 65 members attended the meeting, including 11 of the officers.

“I think it was fun,” said senior Ann Rose, who shares vice-president duties with senior Dallas Hans and Emma Cobb. “We had a good turnout. A lot of freshmen came. It was good to see the new faces who are going to be in our FFA chapter.”

There are 17 seniors in this year’s chapter, seven of them are on the officer team. One of them, Reed Pottebaum, is this year’s president.

“It’s an amazing senior class that we have,” Pottebaum said. “Even besides our officers, we have a lot of people behind the scenes that do a lot of work and are in and out of our ag department every day and just doing their best to make our ag department looking good as it is.”

Pottebaum and Rose are also on the Area V FFA chapter team. Rose is the reporter and Pottebaum is the chaplain. They plan to attend the Area V Leadership Conference, scheduled for Sept. 9 at Bowling Green.

“I’m thrilled at the opportunity to get this and hopefully serve more than our chapter this year,” Pottebaum said.