On Saturday, September 9, the Lindale FFA hosted its annual Booster Club Bash at Cross Brand Cowboy Church in Tyler. The event served as a fundraiser for the organization as well as a start for the new show year.

“Booster Club Bash is like our kickoff livestock show of the year,” Future Farmers of America (FFA) vice president Lynsey McKinney said. “Normally, we host it at our current barn that we have, but we’re starting to grow a lot and had the opportunity to host it at Cross Brand Cowboy Church, so we took that opportunity.”

Cross Brand Cowboy Church offered their amenities for the fundraiser to Lindale High School FFA free of charge. Throughout the day, different events went on simultaneously, allowing the show to run more efficiently than if it had it been put on in the barn due to the many participants that will be involved.

“The good thing about having it at Cross Brand is it’s a huge facility,” FFA reporter Madison Slauson said. “There’s more than one ring, so they can do steers and heifers in one ring, goats and lambs in one ring and then swine in one ring, so it’ll go by a lot faster.”

All of the proceeds from the event went directly into the booster club fund for scholarships and other equipment that is used throughout the year. While there is no charge to see the shows, registering livestock for the show, along with concessions, brought in funds for the group.

“We are not sure the amount of numbers that we will have, but last year, for example, we had 31 pigs, 45 goat entries, 34 lambs, 37 steers and 73 heifers with a grand total of 220 entries overall,” FFA president Ashlie Thompson said. ‘We are looking to make at least $3,500-$5,000 profit on the low end of the scale. We made a little under $5,000 last year.”

The Booster Club Bash  offered new students a chance to get a feel for what shows are like and gave returning students a chance to get back in the swing of things before major shows start up for the year. While the event is large for the Lindale area, it is relatively small in comparison to the shows in Fort Worth and Houston, for example.

“It gives our students experience,” Slauson said. “These are like little practice shows that warm the students up for learning how to do [shows], especially since we just got animals, it’s kind of given them a little head start. It’s a laid back atmosphere.”

Not only does the organization put on events that provide students with experience in showing livestock, they also partake in spring competitions solely based on gaining knowledge in fields that have real-life application. Students planning on pursuing agriculture-related careers can join teams to participate in career development events in the spring.

“They kind of prepare you for that [agriculture-related] field,” McKinney said. “We have livestock judging, breeding and raising cattle, or any other show-type of animal. You kind of get that look for what you want to see in your stock. We have multiple events that really prepare you for a field in that area.”