Outstanding projects propel Illinois members to national awards

INDIANAPOLIS — Outstanding projects developed by three Illinois FFA members earned them top honors in the nation.

Tucker Snook, Cambridge FFA Chapter, is the national winner for Turf and Landscape Maintenance; Molly McCalla, Staunton FFA, won the Sheep Production proficiency award; and Mason Riebe, Tri-Point FFA, is the winner of the Vegetable Production award.

These awards were presented at the 98th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis.

Tucker Snook

Snook started mowing lawns when he was 10 years old.

“I saved up a little bit of birthday money and bought my first lawn mower for $150 from a guy at my church,” he recalled.

“I started driving around town with a little cart that had my phone number on the side,” he said. “I started with a couple of customers and now I have 48 customers a week.”

Snook has expanded his services from lawn mowing to include landscaping, excavation, mulching, leaf clean up and snow plowing.

“I do whatever the customer needs done outside — I’m their guy,” he said.

As of this summer, the national award winner’s business became Tucker’s Mowing LLC.

“I’m going to get my sprayer’s license so I can do applications of fertilizers on lawns and I plan to keep expanding my business,” said the freshman at Black Hawk College, where he is studying to complete an associate’s degree in liberal arts.

Winning the national award was pretty exciting for Snook.

“Last year I won state and the year prior to that I was second in state so I was pretty determined to win state this year, otherwise I was going to be really disappointed in myself,” he said.

“I was happy to be in the top four in the nation and then when I won, that was another whole round of excitement,” said the son of Wade and Candy Snook.

“If it wasn’t for my adviser, I definitely wouldn’t be where I’m at today,” he said about Trent Taber. “If it wasn’t for him always pushing me to keep up on my record book, I probably would not have done it.”

Molly McCalla

McCalla is the first generation in her family to raise sheep.

“It started when I was 3 years old and I pretended to be Mary Had a Little Lamb for an entire year,” she said. “My parents finally broke in and purchased our first Southdowns.”

At 5 years old, McCalla used her birthday money to purchase her first ewe.

“I currently own 17 breeding animals, 12 replacements and 20 lambs,” said the daughter of Craig and Maggie McCalla.

In addition, the national award winner is the flock manager for McCalla Southdowns, where she is responsible for about 40 breeding ewes.

“All summer long I take my own animals as well as my family’s animals and we exhibit them around the nation,” said the high school senior, who is currently the president of her chapter and the vice president for Section 15. “Generally, we go to between six and eight shows each year.”

In addition to her mom, McCalla is advised by John Davin and Spencer Laughlin, and she said it was exciting to win the national award.

“I don’t really know how to describe it,” McCalla said.

“I don’t ever see myself getting out of the sheep industry — it is something I plan to continue for life,” she said.

Mason Riebe

Riebe decided to grow pumpkins for his FFA project after his dad offered him a small portion of a field.

“He wanted to make it easier to farm that field,” said the son of Jeff and Sara Riebe.

For the first year, he grew about 300 pumpkins for his business, Mason’s Peculiar Pumpkins.

“I didn’t know a whole lot about growing pumpkins,” he said. “This year, I probably grew over 3,000 pumpkins.”

Riebe sells heirloom and carving pumpkins to customers at his roadside stand and he also sells some in bulk to commercial customers.

“Over the years I came across some obstacles like rootworm beetles going from the corn into my pumpkins, so I had to work with pest management,” Riebe said.

“I also realized I didn’t need to water my pumpkins as much as I thought I did, because pumpkins hold water in their vines,” he said.

Advised by Jenna Baker and Kaylee Shouse, Riebe said he was surprised to be named top in the nation.

“I didn’t think that was going to happen and I was super happy, that’s for sure,” he said.

Currently, Riebe is a freshman at Parkland College where he is studying diesel mechanics.

“I am going to continue to grow pumpkins at least while I’m in college,” he said.