Six members of the Wellsville-Middletown FFA chapter are planning to go to Washington, D.C. next summer to attend the Washington Leadership Conference.

So, the chapter is having a fundraising event that will help send Maddi Poage, Rachel Davis, Cooper Henderson, Leah Kleinsorge and sisters Abbie and Kara Freie to the nation’s capital. That event is the First Annual W-M FFA Trivia Night, which is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Dec. 8 at the W-M high school gymnasium.

The event will include a pasta dinner that starts at 5 p.m. Trivia competition begins at 6 p.m. The cost for a table of six participants is $150, equating to $25 a person. Participants who are interested have to sign up by Dec. 7 by filling out a Google form on the W-M FFA Facebook page.

Poage, who is serving her first year as FFA chapter president, said she already received sponsorships from Bill Wilkinson, Amp’d Up Ag, Middletown Veterinary Services and Pet Pro in Middletown.

“We all have to pay so much money, so all of us have gone around (the Wellsville community) to so many different businesses to get sponsorships,” said Poage, who is a junior. “We have 16 rounds of trivia, so each business will sponsor one round of trivia. We all got quite a few sponsorships so far.”

The Washington Leadership Conference is an hands-on event designed for FFA members who are ready to take their leadership skills to the next level. The date of the event has yet to be announced.

Poage said the chapter started talking about having a trivia night fundraiser when classes began at W-M in August.

“We always go on a trip in the summer, whether it would be FFA camp or WLC,” Poage said. “We went to Texas one year instead of going to WLC. We knew we would take a trip, but after school started, we had a parent meeting and we decided we would do a trivia night as one of our fundraisers.”

Poage has never been to Washington. The junior said she is looking forward to the trip out east.

“It will be very nice,” she said. “I think I will get a lot out of the experience.”

After four months, the W-M FFA chapter is enjoying an outstanding year. One of the members, senior Bethany Slovensky, qualified for state competition in forestry after placing first in the forestry category in districts. The chapter also went to Indianapolis for the FFA National Convention, where W-M graduate Kaleb Peak was a finalist in swine placement proficiency.

“We’ve done a lot of exciting things so far,” Poage said. “I think we’re looking forward to the spring contest season, getting all of our teams and speeches going.”