Blue Jacket Bonanza changes student lives with each jacket 

By Teri Bontrager

When I think of the Blue Jacket Bonanza Program, the old cliché “Who would have dreamed” comes to mind.

Never would I have dreamed that from an idea started over dinner with a former Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau director in 2010, our county’s Blue Jacket Bonanza Program would be recognized nationally by the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National FFA, be adopted by state and county/parish Farm Bureaus and award more than 4,000 jackets nationwide, plus, change so many students’ lives one corduroy jacket at a time. (See related story.)

Through my journey as a Farm Bureau executive director, I am often asked to judge FFA contests and attend fundraisers and fairs. I noticed that many of the local students did not have their own FFA jackets. It became my mission to find a way to provide deserving FFA students the chance to earn their very own iconic blue and gold jacket.

To be granted a jacket, the students are required to complete an application process that entails a written essay, personal interview, community service and the student’s commitment to the FFA program.

Making the program available to all Farm Bureaus across the United States to help exponentially grow this cause has brought me immense joy and gratitude to see young agriculturalists supported by their local Farm Bureaus through the Blue Jacket Bonanza Program. Giving students a chance to earn their jacket through this incentive-based program has been one of my greatest accomplishments.

As I look back on the more than 700 students I have interviewed during the past 13 years in Santa Barbara County, there is one interview prompt I always ask the students: “What does the blue jacket mean to you?” Their faces light up when they say, “It means I belong to something big,” “It will give me confidence,” or “My parents will be so proud of me.” 

I smile knowing that their earning their very own blue jacket makes them sit a little straighter and that when they put their jacket on, they will stand taller and feel excitement swell in their hearts as they start their own FFA journey.

Early on in the program, one young man replied, “If I’m awarded my very own blue jacket, it will mean when I zip it up, I will be the very best me that I can be.” As tears filled my eyes and pride for that young man filled my heart, I knew that with students like him, the future of agriculture was in good hands.

(Teri Bontrager is executive director of Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau. She can be reached at tbsbfb@hwy246.net.)