Art chairs to be auctioned for FFA

Michele Lewis had a vision for the chair she was painting Monday afternoon at her home.

“I’m going to make it really funky,” she said, “like something June Joplin would want to bid on.”

Lewis, the career and technical education coordinator at Carson High School, is organizing an effort to decorate about 25 chairs — most of which will also serve as planters for yard art. The chairs will be auctioned off as a fundraiser for FFA during the Greenhouse Concert Under the Stars 5 p.m. July 9 at Cafe at Adele’s.

Capitol FFA adviser Charles Mann said the annual fundraiser is essential so members of the club are able to travel to conferences and competitions across the country.

“It allows every student, regardless of their socioeconomic status, equal opportunity to attend these things,” Mann said. “Everybody is able to take those opportunities that allow them to excel and know they can succeed in whatever they put their minds toward.”

Meghan Harrison, 16, volunteered to help paint chairs for the auction.

“It’s a good thing to do because it’s raising money for our chapter,” she said. Carson High School is better, she said, for having added the program in recent years.

“There’s a lot of kids at our school who weren’t able to do something like this because we didn’t have the program.”

Harrison and Alecia Ouellette, 17, recently returned from a leadership conference for FFA.

“It’s really great that we get these opportunities to go to conferences and meet a whole bunch of people with similar interests,” Ouellette, said.

This year’s concert features the Little River Band and benefits the Greenhouse Project.

The Greenhouse Project began in 2008 and serves as a teaching facility for students and distributed 4,000 pounds of fresh produce to local food banks.

“They are a big-time partners,” Lewis said. “We wouldn’t have an FFA program if it weren’t for the Greenhouse Project.”