Ag Olympigs creator credited with changing the school, community

By GEOFF PARKS

For the Capital Press

PERRYDALE, Ore. -- The Perrydale High School FFA chapter is so intertwined with daily life at the small Polk County high school that it was fitting an entire afternoon and a school assembly was devoted to its retiring FFA adviser, Kirk Hutchinson.

For the occasion, every staff member and student was outfitted in shades of FFA blue and gold.

Hutchinson, 57, retired from his 30-year career at Perrydale at the end of January, but the legacy he leaves future generations of FFA students about the importance of community service and personal growth will continue.

Some of those lessons have come in a light-hearted way. His Ag Week activities every February -- the Ag Olympigs and Junior Ag Olympigs -- have earned the Perrydale FFA chapter local, statewide and national renown.

Other lessons have come from a program that came straight from Hutchinson's heart. He started the Food for All program to help the school and community learn to work together to feed hungry people throughout Oregon and to teach students how to take the initiative in serving others.

The program started as a competition between Hutchinson and another teacher to see which class could gather the most food to give away to needy people. Last year, the FFA-led Food for All program gathered 211,000 pounds of food.

"Every year is better than before," Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson's mother, Helen, 90 -- who raised eight children and whom Hutchinson credited with inspiring him in his philanthropic lessons -- was in the bleachers during the three-hour ceremony in the Perrydale gymnasium on Jan. 27. They were joined by three of his brothers and three of his four children.

Speaker after speaker reflected on Hutchinson's activities with the FFA chapter and how they have changed the school's staff and students -- and through them, the entire community.

"Hutch has been as much a part of the school as the school itself," athletic director Chris Gubrud said, who went on to list Hutchinson's 10 "rules to live by." Those included "play fair," "say you're sorry" and "live a balanced life."

Some of the honors accorded the Perrydale FFA chapter over the years of Hutchinson's tutelage:

* The chapter has been either a Gold Superior Chapter or No. 1 at the state level since 1986, Hutchinson said. "No chapter in the U.S. has more Superior Chapter Awards than Perrydale."

Those awards are based on activities by the chapter, the students and in the community. The award "is powerful because it takes all members of a chapter submitting to it to win," he said.

* The chapter won the National FFA Organization's Million Hour Challenge Award in 2007 as the chapter logging the most community service hours that year.

* Hutchinson said the Perrydale FFA has gone to the national chapter competition several times. Only 500 schools of the 7,500 chapters active in the U.S. get to participate in the national FFA competition.

"We're the only chapter in Oregon to reach the three-star level eight times," he said. That means Perrydale has won those awards "more than any other chapter in the nation."

Asked what his plans are for the near future, Hutchinson's initial answer was: "Not teaching!"

Pressed further, he admitted he would be involved in helping direct the Food for All collection at the end of this year. He said the program has grown so large and complex that it would take several months of working with his successor for a smooth transition.