From corn mazes to blocks of ice, pancakes and beds, Auburndale FFA serves community year-round

Over 10 years ago, Auburndale FFA members added a unique project to their National FFA Week celebration by recognizing area farmers in the middle of winter and giving them thank-you gift bags. It’s a tradition that continues today with the enthusiastic support of the chapter’s 100 members.
“We started out with dairy farmers because at that time there were 125 dairy farmers in our school district,” said Mark Cournoyer, FFA advisor and Agriscience Instructor at Auburndale schools. “The students decided to take milk and donuts to the farmers. We had to look at the milk license list from DATCP to find their addresses.”
The FFA members sometimes faced challenging weather conditions when making their deliveries.
“It’s been generally a frosty morning when the kids headed out because in February we never know what the weather’s going to be like,” Cournoyer said. “That first year, they went out with homemade donuts from a local bakery and Kwik Trip milk chugs. And those gift bags were very well received by the farmers.”
Looking for more gift ideas, the members talked with students from other chapters.

“While attending a workshop at the National FFA Convention, we met a man who made gloves with names embroidered on them, and we included those in the bags during the second year,” said Cournoyer. “They were awesome chore gloves and our farmers absolutely loved them. It was really neat when we’d go to the farms in the summertime and see they were still wearing the gloves 6-8 months after they got their gift bags.”
Each year the FFA members would verify the addresses and deliver the gift bags to local farmers on the Friday morning of FFA Week, which they did this year on Feb. 21.
“Sometimes we’d find the farmers still doing their chores, and sometimes they’d already be gone picking up parts or running other errands, but the bags were always left at the farms,”Cournoyer said.
This year’s National FFA Week was held Feb. 15-22, with the theme “Celebrating Tradition, Inspiring the Future”.
Auburndale FFA Chapter Treasurer Brena Thiel shared details of the contents tucked inside of this year’s gift bags delivered by FFA officer teams.
“This year we included Weber’s Farm Store milk, cheese, doughnuts, beef sticks and dried cranberries,” she said. “We wanted to take the time during the cold winter months to thank our local dairy farmers for putting high-quality milk in our schools, so they got a note thanking them for that.”
The note read in part, “You are the backbone of our communities, tirelessly cultivating the land, raising livestock, and providing the essential sustenance that supports us all. We’ve included a small bag of milk to show you that your hard work and dedication made it possible to provide schools with high-quality milk. We appreciate all the mornings and late nights you put in. Thank you! Enjoy a treat while you farm.”
The officers lead four teams of members who make the deliveries, according to Thiel.
“We used Google AI this year to help make our routes more efficient,” Thiel said. “It took us about two-and-a-half hours to complete the route I had. One of our longer routes had about 30 stops and took about three to three and-a-half hours.”
Some of the officers aren’t old enough to drive. “I’m only 15, so we have older chapter members who drive that are able to go out with us,” she said.
The FFA members still deliver gift bags to 125 farms, but because many dairy farmers have transitioned to other fields of agriculture, the gift bags are now also delivered to cranberry farmers, beef farmers, poultry farmers, goat farmers and grain farmers along with the dairy farmers in the school district.
“Although many dairy farmers have transitioned into other areas of agriculture, that dedication is still there and that willingness to feed their community, our country and the world is still there,” stressed Cournoyer. “It’s pretty cool for the kids to stop in at these farms. Some farmers know they’re coming and for some it’s a complete surprise.”
Growing up on a dairy farm, Thiel remembers coming to the door when the FFA members delivered the gift bags.
“As a kid that made me smile. Now I’m glad to be able to bring some joy to older adults during the cold, winter months. It’s great to bring smiles to their faces,” she said.
Auburndale FFA members spearhead several other activities that help raise money for area charities.
“We’re really fortunate to have our school forest within walking distance right behind the school, and we use that for several activities,” Thiel said. “We have a Pumpkin Glow where we line the forest trails with 500 pumpkins that are carved by students from the middle school and high school. We put lights in them. And the money we receive from those who visit the trails is donated to the Toys for Tots Foundation.”
The FFA chapter also sets up a corn maze and plants a sunflower field, which also helps raise funds for Toys for Tots.
With a similar format to the fall Pumpkin Glow, members also offer an Ice Glow tour through the school forest in the winter.
“We freeze ice into blocks, and put food coloring, cranberries and other colorful materials inside,” said Thiel. “Then we drill a hole in the bottoms of the blocks and put flashlights in them as they line the trails in the school forest. The funds raised are donated to the Sleep in Heavenly Peace charity that provides beds for children in need.”
The Auburndale FFA will be hosting its 65th Annual Pancake Feed on Sunday, March 23. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.. Members will be serving real potato and buttermilk pancakes along with Smith Bros. sausage cooked on site, US Championship cheese, applesauce, sweetened dried cranberries and maple syrup crafted from maple trees in the school forest.
The school also will be the site of a “bed build” in April where students, faculty and community volunteers build bed frames for the Sleep in Heavenly Peace organization.
“We have people from the age of 4 to 94 who come to the Bed Build,” said Cournoyer.
Cournoyer says the Auburndale FFA Chapter was established in 1937.
“We’re not only celebrating 88 years, but we’re excited about the various community activities we sponsor throughout the year,” he said.
Chapter members have been recognized for their efforts, winning several awards.
“We were recognized as a Gold Rated Chapter during the recent National FFA Convention, and we were the inaugural Swiderski Equipment Chapter of the Month Award winner in January,” said Cournoyer.
Brenna Thiel is enthusiastic about the FFA projects she’s involved in, but as a high school junior, she’s also looking to the future and a career in agriculture.
“There are so many opportunities and I haven’t narrowed it down to one, but I’m looking into horse chiropractic or physical therapy for horses,” she said, adding that a role in managing her family’s dairy farm is also one of the options she’s considering.
Continuing to guide students at the Auburndale schools is part of the future Cournoyer envisions for himself.
Graduating from UW River Falls in December 1999, Cournoyer started teaching at Auburndale in January 2000.
“We found a cool home here. My teachers instilled in me that if you take care of your community, your community will take care of you,” he said.
“The things we do here are remarkable,” he said. “The Village of Auburndale has a population of 792, but we graduate between 60 and 65 high school students a year. The support our FFA chapter gets from the community for our activities is tremendous. For that Pumpkin Glow, we get 3,000 people to show up in five hours.
“We can celebrate and include the entire family, and provide activities for those families that bring out the best in everybody. There’s no other place I’d rather be. We have cool kids, cool parents and we get a lot of cool things done,” he said.