Oakdale High School FFA students will once again be spending time in the kitchen – either their own or that of the FES Hall – as they prepare for the Third Annual Oakdale FFA Booster and Alumni Dinner.

The annual event will be hosted on Saturday, Feb. 1. Social hour will begin at 5:30 p.m. and dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. A dinner of steak, shrimp, baked potato, salad, vegetables and rolls will be served. Tickets are $50 per person or VIP Table for $700, which seats eight and includes reserved seating, unlimited beer and wine, as well as raffle tickets and other amenities. The FES Hall is at 140 N. Lee Ave., Oakdale.

During the evening, guests may enjoy the no-host bar or opt to purchase a souvenir beer or wine glass for $20 and receive unlimited beer or wine with the glass purchase.

OHS Ag Instructor Grace Tobias shared the group has once again partnered with Conlin Supply, which generously sponsored the glassware.

“They’ve been incredibly generous to our program for years,” Tobias said of the local business. “It’s a partnership to kind of reduce our cost and also get them a little advertising and recognition for all the work they do for us.”

The night will also include a raffle, as well as silent auctions, but it is perhaps the desserts which get the long time FFA supporters most excited and at the ready with their checkbooks.

Tobias shared that as the FFA program has grown, so too has its need for increased funds to help support the existing student body. Estimating the group to currently be in the 450 student neighborhood, the decision was made to adopt a partnership under the umbrella of the FFA Alumni Organization.

“That gave us a lot of structure by way of the by-laws and the constitution and the way things are set up,” she said of the group officially named the Oakdale FFA Alumni and Boosters. “It also allowed us to get our tax id number in a much more simple way.

“We like the idea of that Alumni name in there,” Tobias continued, “partly because not only do we want to encourage our students as they graduate to become a part of the organization but also to encourage the past alumni to come back to support our group.”

Recalling the days of the past, Tobias noted while the once annual FFA Cake Auction brought in a large amount of funds annually, the transition to the dinner/auction has been exactly what the organization needed to support the growing group.

For those in attendance, however, it leaves little question that the dessert auction does indeed still have a following, as well as a contributing draw to the night’s fundraiser.

“The community has always has been so supportive,” she said, noting the change from cakes to desserts enables students a bit more flexibility with items to be auctioned.

All funds generated from the event go directly to the students of FFA.

“The main thing we’re really trying to get boosters to do, is directly impact as many students in our program as possible,” Tobias said. “It’s been so nice to have the flexibility of we’d like to do this and boosters can take care of it.”

Tickets for the third annual event are still available and may be purchased from any Oakdale High FFA member or by contacting Tobias as gtobias@ojusd.org.