The Craft & Trade Show was held by the FFA (Future Farmers of America) in the Allen High School cafeteria on Nov. 12.

The Craft & Trade Show was an annual fundraiser that allowed the community to support the FFA by buying unique wares from vendors. It had a wide variety of items available for purchase, such as Christmas decorations, jewelry, handmade quilts and blankets and homemade food items. The Craft & Trade Show was first held in Allen in 2012.

“I had gone to a craft fair at another high school and I started asking them questions,” agricultural sciences teacher Stacy Schertz said. “It had a lot of trial and error, lots of hiccups along the way, but I got with the sponsor from the high school and they helped get it started here in Allen.”

Junior Jennifer Keele, the craft show chairperson, has been a part of FFA for two years and had high hopes for this event.

“The craft show is not just something that we put on to promote fundraising, but also to promote local businesses and artisans that need a little bit more bigger audience,” Keele said. “They can come here and we advertise it and we put lists up of vendors and what they are selling.”

In addition to the vendors that were there, the Craft & Trade Show had free admission, with door prizes and a silent auction.

“This [was] a great opportunity for people who are looking for a unique Christmas gift,” Schertz said. “There [was] some really good stuff and some really good deals.”

All of the money raised helped the Allen FFA, a nationwide student organization that focuses on agriculture and leadership. According to Schertz, students in the Allen FFA can have access to opportunities that they otherwise might not be able to have.

“In the dynamics of how Allen is laid out, kids don’t have the opportunity to raise a pig, sheep, cow or goat in their yard because of things like neighborhood associations,” Schertz said. “Allen ISD provides them a facility to actually raise those animals, so they get that hands-on experience.”

Over 100 students are members of the FFA. FFA encourages students to pursue careers in agriculture fields, which according to Schertz, is more than just farming.

“A lot of times people form an opinion that FFA is all farmers, cowpokes, and all that, but it’s not,” Schertz said. “We have a lot of nontraditional students who are doing great things and will go on to do great things in agriculture, from medicine to engineering.”

Keele is in her second year of FFA. Since joining, she has found it to be one of the most enjoyable experiences at Allen High School.

“I joined because I want to be a veterinarian,” Keele said. “But I’m also interested in learning about other agricultural opportunities, and I want to learn more responsibility, time management. I want to put my service to see where my limits are, [and] I want to exceed my limits too.”

FFA hosts many events in addition to the craft fair, such as stock shows and community events.

“We just ended our fresh country fundraiser where we sell meats and desserts,” Keele said. “We have stock shows that we host, like our local show is coming up in January, where people can come out and they can see all of our live animal projects. They can also bid on Ag Mec projects, which are projects that have been welded together like fire pits or hog traps.”

Some students in FFA feel that they have a great impact on the world.

“FFA is a really great opportunity to spread the word about our culture in general,” Keele said. “It’s what we put on our bodies like all the stuff that goes into making clothes, what medicine is made out of, what animals need to survive, what we need to survive. It’s what makes the world go round.”

Find out more about the FFA Craft & Trade Show at http://allenffacraftshow.wixsite.com/allenffacraftshow