(Lincoln)- The Red Cloud FFA Chapter is thankful to have a new agricultural career education building and equipment donated by the Sherwood family and other community members through the “I Believe in the Future of Ag” fundraising campaign.

The “I Believe in the Future of Ag” campaign educates the public on the importance of agricultural education in Nebraska schools through a marketing campaign and serves as a fundraising campaign to grow the capacity of Nebraska FFA at both the state and local level.

23 corporate partners challenged Nebraska’s FFA members to raise $300,000 at the local level. The Red Cloud FFA Chapter is one of several chapters to rise to the challenge. The Sherwood Family wanted to give back to the community that has supported them for the last 125 years. The FFA chapter decided to use the Sherwood Family donation towards the agriculture building because it was last updated 75 years ago.

“The students are very much looking forward to the new experiences they will be having in shop and class,” Joe Strickland, Red Cloud FFA advisor said.

Sponsors not only provided $35,000 in matching funds for Nebraska FFA chapters during the 2015-16 campaign but also gave funds to develop the campaign and educational marketing piece.

“The beauty of this campaign is that it gives a local FFA advisor the opportunity to ask for a tax-deductible donation to do things they couldn’t otherwise afford. It also helps them develop a group of community supporters,” Stacey Agnew, executive director of the Nebraska FFA Foundation said. “We’re seeing some really cool initiatives in our FFA chapters.”

As part of the statewide effort, local donors select which chapter receives their donation. The entire donation and a portion of matching funds go directly to the chapter to use for innovative projects in their classrooms, leadership programming, community service projects and field trips to advance agriculture education in their schools. The annual campaign runs from August through February each year.