FFA raffle program helps promote ag education

By Sean Ellis

Idaho Farm Bureau Federation

MERIDIAN – When Middleton farmer Sid Freeman started a tractor raffle in 2010, he saw it as a way to get rid of an old tractor and help raise a little scholarship money for Idaho FFA members.

Sixteen years later, the raffle is still going strong and raising a lot of scholarship money for agriculture’s future employees and leaders.

According to Idaho FFA Foundation officials, the raffle program has raised more than half a million dollars toward scholarships and for helping fund the state’s 100-plus FFA chapters.

There are currently more than 6,000 FFA members in Idaho.

“I wanted to help ag ed students in high school go on to college and then hopefully they’ll come back to our communities as leaders in the future,” Freeman said during this year’s 16^th annual raffle event.

Freeman started the raffle program with his wife, Pam, in 2010. With the help of local ag-related businesses, the Freemans refurbished a 1941 Farmall tractor and hauled it around the state on a borrowed trailer to promote it.

The first drawing was held in April 2011 and the grand prize during the early years of the raffle was a refurbished tractor.

In 2020, the Idaho FFA Foundation started offering an off-road utility vehicle as the grand prize as a way to appeal to a wider potential audience of ticket buyers. The grand prize is still hauled to more than 25 events across Idaho.

Also in 2020, the foundation raised ticket prices from $10 to $20 and began directing half of the money back to individual FFA chapters.

Freeman said one of the unintended results of the raffle program is that it has become a visual symbol of the Idaho FFA program. The grand prize is hauled to events around the state, helping educate people about the importance of FFA and agricultural education.

“The unforeseen advantage that we got from the raffle was the publicity,” he said. “It really has highlighted agricultural education and the FFA program. It’s definitely a traveling billboard.”

He said his main goal was and is to help FFA students go on to post-secondary education and hopefully return to the ag industry in their local communities as well-equipped workers and leaders.

He said the FFA program has a proven record of turning out good employees and leaders, whether it’s in agriculture or any other industry.

“These students, once they get through college and move on to other avenues of their life, you see them in all industries and achieving many high-level accomplishments,” Freeman said.

More than 5,800 raffle tickets were sold this year, raising more than $116,000. Half of each $20 raffle ticket will go toward funding scholarships for FFA members heading to post-secondary education and half will go directly back to the FFA chapter that sold the ticket.

Carly Jordan, executive director of the Idaho FFA Foundation, said the raffle program has been a huge benefit to the state’s FFA members.

“It’s a very important program for the Idaho FFA,” she said. “We’ve awarded so many scholarships and been able to benefit so many local chapters and help them in their efforts in running really good agricultural education programming in their areas.”

During this year’s raffle drawing, Jordan also spoke about how the FFA program benefits students, as well as the state.

“FFA members grow into innovators, collaborators and leaders for the Idaho agriculture industry and across the state,” she said. “The scholarship raffle program has gained the Idaho FFA Foundation a ton of public visibility.”

She also thanked the ag industry for supporting the raffle program, as can be seen by the dozens of names of sponsors on the back of the trailer that hauls the grand prize to various events.

“We’re very thankful to have a lot of very generous sponsors for this program,” Jordan said.

Amaya Aguirre-Landa, executive director of the Idaho Grain Producers Association, drew the names of this year’s raffle winners. The drawing was witnessed by Idaho FFA Foundation officials, several FFA members and Idaho Farm Bureau Federation staff.

The winner of this year’s grand prize, a new Polaris RZR XP-4 1000, is Tammy Ray of New Plymouth.

The second-place winner, of a chainsaw courtesy of Campbell Tractor Co., is David Phillips of Blackfoot.

Beth Pawlak of Kuna won the third-place prize, a $500 D&B Supply gift card courtesy of D&B Supply.

Fourth-place winner Lupe Rivera of Gooding won a $300 Valley Wide Country Store gift card courtesy of Valley Wide Cooperative.

Sponsorships for the 2026-2027 raffle close Aug. 14. Tickets are available starting July 17. Learn more at https://www.growidahoffa.org/scholarship-raffle/ or by contacting the Idaho FFA Foundation.