Across the state of Wisconsin, high school agriculture programs and FFA chapters are having their spring plant sales. We can’t make it to them all, but Stephanie Hoff did attend a special sale over the weekend. Sauk Prairie High School just opened the doors to the new Jeff Hicken Horticultural Learning Center.
The late Jeff Hicken was an agriculture instructor at Sauk Prairie High School for about eight years. He was named Wisconsin High School Teacher of the Year and got the Herb Kohl Teacher Fellowship Award and Wisconsin Association of Agricultural Educators’ Outstanding Young Member Award. In 2006, he went on to serve as the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Education Consultant and State FFA Advisor with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. He passed in June of 2021.
In an interview with Mid-West Farm Report, Jeff’s son and State FFA Treasurer Cole Hicken says the new learning center at Sauk Prairie High School will carry on his dad’s legacy. Agriculture instructor Troy Talford says the new greenhouse will allow for more students to take on horticulture projects from crop science to golf course management. Students are also growing food for the school lunch program. Alumnus BJ Chrisler, who spearheaded fundraising, says the new facility was an example of how the agriculture community comes together during difficult times.
Pictured: Inside the Jeff Hicken Horticultural Learning Center; local woman selecting flowers; DPI Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Education Consultant and State FFA Advisor Sally Ladsten working the cash register as a Sauk Prairie FFA alumna; local woman buying as many flowers as she can carry; Cole Hicken speaking at the ribbon cutting with BJ Chrisler and Troy Talford in the background; Hicken family and friends cutting the ribbon with Jeff’s sons holding the scissors
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