“Our goal is to spread this program to more states in the coming years to highlight all the talented agriculture teachers across the country,” Liggett said.
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As a finalist, Spahr is in the running for the grand prize of $3,000, which will be announced during the Future Farmers of America convention in May 2019, said Shawnda Vega, Nationwide’s representative who is presenting checks to the 10 teachers across the state.
“We know the importance of farmers and feeding the world,” Vega said. “We just really want to make sure that those people who are teaching our future farmers and people in the ag industry are acknowledged and awareness is raised.”
Twenty Greene County juniors and seniors are enrolled in Spahr’s program. On Thursday, Spahr was presented with a $500 check with his family and students, who nominated him for the award.
Thanks to the 20-year tax levy that was approved by voters in November, Greene County will have a new career center built by July 2020 at U.S. 35 and U.S. 68.
“Especially with the levy getting passed for the new building, it will be nice to have some money to put new stuff into the lab,” said Spahr, a 1992 GCCC graduate and the school’s FFA adviser.
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Spahr said his students work on everything from “chainsaws and weed eaters to semis and combines.” Students who complete the program can go to work after graduation, filling a need for one the state’s largest industries.
“It’s not only farming, as an organization we’ve tried to get away from cows, sows and plows and make it encompassing of all the actual areas that agriculture touches — from bio-security mechanics to crop production to animal production,” he said. “It’s a huge field … and we need people.”
Spahr this year also received the Outstanding Agricultural Education Teacher Award administered by the Ohio Association of Agricultural Educators.
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