Warren County FFA received the State Platinum PLOW Award at the 2023 Tennessee State FFA Convention and are continuing their efforts in promoting literacy. 

PLOW stands for Passing Literacy OnWard. It is a challenging and engaging reading literacy program developed by the 2005-2006 Tennessee Association FFA State Officer Team. The inspiration for PLOW is, “The plow is the symbol of labor and tillage of the soil. Without labor, neither knowledge nor wisdom can accomplish much.”

PLOW is an organized effort to promote the excitement and improvement of literacy in agricultural education programs. PLOW encourages FFA members to join with their fellow chapter members and others across the state in developing their reading skills to a level of confidence and competency never achieved by mandatory programs. 

Warren County FFA members held a book drive at Warren County High School in the spring semester of 2023 and collected over 1,200 books. Since then, FFA has been sorting and distributing those books to the children in the community. 

Most recently, FFA members participated in Christmas in the Village where they hosted storytime. Every 30 minutes in the schoolhouse at the Warren County Fair Grounds, FFA members read to children and gave free books to every child who came by for a visit. 

“We have donated books to daycares, preschools and classroom libraries at our elementary schools. We also spent time reading to elementary school students at various schools,” said FFA Advisor Danielle Smith.

Ms. Taylor Smoot at Morrison Elementary School allowed FFA members to come read to the first-grade class during the spring semester. They read books about chicks and the chicken life cycle. The club also left five chicks for the class to take care of for a few weeks. 

Various FFA students also walked to Hickory Creek Elementary School to read to every grade level and teach them about agriculture. FFA additionally sponsored an agriculture category in the WCHS Literacy Fair and hopes to add it to the elementary school literacy fairs soon. Multiple books were also donated to the free libraries around town. 

“This is a wonderful program and our students thoroughly enjoy working with the youth of Warren County to promote reading literacy and comprehension in our community,” said Smith.  

FFA is hoping to continue their success with PLOW. They will attend the State FFA Convention this coming March. 

“We are hoping to achieve the same level at the 2024 State FFA Convention in March,” said Smith.