Delaware Valley College
700 East Butler Avenue
Doylestown, PA 18901
The year was kicked off with the annual Block & Bridle/Dairy Society welcome back picnic held at the dairy this year. The event drew a fairly large group and let old members reunite with each other and meet new members. The end of September was homecoming weekend. Members put their creative skills to use and worked hard to build a float for the parade. Although the float did not receive a prize members felt it still looked great.
October brought Halloween Haunting, which happens on the weekend closest to Halloween when some of the buildings on campus are transformed into a haunted house and followed by a spine tingling hayride through the farms and orchards. All of the college’s clubs, sororities and fraternities participate by performing skits somewhere on campus. The B & B crew could be found in a haunted butcher shop scene tempting the passerby’s with choice cuts.
In November members of Block & Bridle and Dairy Society went on a weekend trip to the Winter Royal in Canada. In addition to visiting the livestock show, members toured a few dairies on the way up and stopped by Niagara Falls on the way home. Members also sold Hatfield hams for our annual fundraiser. This is typically the biggest fundraiser for the year. Bringing the fall semester to a close was a trip to Melody Brooks Rink for an evening of ice skating that was fun for all that attended.
The New Year and start of the spring semester found six B & B members and Mrs. Gilbert as our advisor at the National Block & Bridle convention in Washington D.C. Members had a great time listening to speakers, touring the city and going on the farm tour of the Middleburg area. Our chapter also submitted a scrapbook for judging.
The long Valentine’s day weekend found two teams of B&B and Dairy society members at NESA (North East Student Affiliate) hosted this year at the University of Connecticut. The teams competed in Quiz bowl competitions as well as a livestock judging contest against the other Ag schools of the Northeast. A representative from each team also presented a short power point presentation. An awards banquet and dance completed the weekend.
After spring break in March members picked which of the college’s livestock they wanted to show for A-day and began working with them in preparation for the show. We also held a raffle for gift certificates from local restaurants. In co-ordination with career day on campus speakers from Smithfield Meats gave a presentation on job opportunities that are available with their company.
On April 10 Block & Bridle and Dairy Society held the annual club banquet where the outstanding member awards were given out, as well as club scholarships and the judging teams were also recognized. An Easter Hatfield ham sale was also held as another fundraiser. Pride and Polish was the second weekend in April where members helped to clean up and prepare the campus for A-day. A-day was the last weekend in April. The Friday before A-day was set-up day with no day classes. Members helped to prepare the show ring for the livestock show as well as set up tents and the food booths. Over the weekend members organized and ran the livestock show while other members exhibited the college’s Angus or Hereford heifers, yearling ewes, gilts, dairy heifers, and yearling Standardbreds in the livestock show. B&B also staffs the pork BBQ booth at A-day. While Saturday was rainy Sunday made up for it with a great day for the livestock show and a large crowd.
The first weekend in May the college hosted a livestock judging contest for the local 4-H’ers and FFA members. B&B members assisted in moving the animals around and collecting score cards. Overall it was a great year and members are looking forward to next year!
