Since TTA is a partner organization in Texas HORSE, we wanted to make you aware of this opportunity to assist the agriculture education program in West, Texas.

As a member of the Texas Agriculture Council, Texas HORSE received the following request from the Texas FFA Foundation via the office of State Representative Kyle Kacal (HD 12).  Please help if you can:

 

Subject: West High School Agricultural Education in Texas

Dear Colleague:

Many of you may recall national news reports concerning West, the rural community north of Waco that was devastated by the fertilizer plant explosion. We have embarked on an ambitious project to address the needs of the agricultural education program in that community. The school was under-insured because, understandably, no one anticipated a disaster that would wipe out three-fourths of the school’s facilities in a moment. To carry full insurance, this rural school would have had to reduce their faculty by three or four teachers. Classes will start in West on August 26th in portable buildings. For the agricultural science department, there are no viable facility options for hands-on instruction until late fall 2015 at the very soonest. The most probable timeline puts completion of the new high school with its CTE department at mid-spring, 2016. For the students of West, this is lost time and experience, and we cannot allow this to happen! For many students, the hands-on career and technical education experience is their future and livelihood. 

We have activated the New Day Crisis Fund at the Texas FFA Foundation, and I have given the first contribution to this important project. Our goal is to raise the funds to purchase a 60 X 80 steel building to be erected on the existing concrete slab where the elementary school once stood, have it wired for electricity and build a classroom on one end. This will be the home of the West Agriculture Science Department, West ISD’s primary CTE program and the West FFA until permanent facilities are completed and opened in spring 2016. This building will then become the West ISD’s maintenance facility. As you read this e-mail, a volunteer labor force is being assembled to execute this great task for our teachers and students in West.

We believe that we can pull together and have this mission accomplished before October 1, and we will once again demonstrate the immense power of the agricultural education community.

How to help:

Online via credit card or bank draft at:  https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=texasffa&id=9

Or send your checks to:

Texas FFA Foundation
New Day Crisis Fund for West FFA
614 East 12th Street
Austin, TX  78701

In advance, thank you for your immediate response to this pressing need. Together, we can make this happen.

—
Tom Maynard
Executive Director
Texas FFA Association
614 East 12th Street
Austin, TX  78701
(512) 480-8045-office
(512) 476-2894-fax
(512) 694-4331-mobile