National FFA Week: Student-driven project breathes new life into Oran's George Tilles Jr. Memorial Park

George Tilles Jr. Memorial Park in Oran will receive a bit of a facelift thanks to Oran High School's Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter.

The chapter recently began a student-led project rejuvenating the youth baseball fields at the park. The project will include replacing the dugouts for both fields, replacing the fenced backstops with brick and netting, adding small storage sheds and resurfacing the fields.

Chapter sponsor and OHS agriculture education teacher Chris Asmus said the group has been looking for a service project to do for the "last few years" but lacked resources. Asmus credited Oran principal Brent Trankler for his help securing a $10,000 grant from Harbor Freight to go toward the project.

"This year we had a new principal come in, and we're very fortunate that he came in," Asmus said. "He is a past winner of a Harbor Freight grant that he won down in Sikeston, and he was kind of the lead on this. Since he was a winner of that, we were able to package that together with ... a community improvement grant where it's up to $10,000, and we were a winner of that as well."

Trankler explained that the application process was part of the project and involved the students by having them plan a project and create a budget.

"We've got materials listed out," Trankler said. "We've got an itemized budget that supports the project."

In addition to the grant, Asmus said the youth sports leagues also raised close to $10,000 more through concessions and other means that will go toward the project. He said he is hopeful the city will pitch in as well.

"I think once they see this, they're going to be right here in the mix with us and want to help out," Asmus said. "It's a big thing for our community. The kids will see it, and I think they'll appreciate it and take care of it more."

Oran sophomore Weston Klipfel said the idea to rejuvenate the ballfields came from the students' experience playing youth league baseball there.

"It's always been run down, so when our new principal came in and showed us the idea of getting grants, we thought, 'Hey, we could use that and use it for our town and community instead of just our school,'" Klipfel said. "So far, it's worked out very well for us."

Klipfel is hopeful that more grants can be secured as he continues his education to help improve more than just the baseball fields.

"I just want to improve on it, to make it better for generations to come and to make it better than how we found it," Klipfel said. "I'd like to improve the park area and all that because it's all really old. As long as I can remember, the batting cages and basketball goal, they've been very run down. In the future, hopefully, we can get some more grants and some more community money and redo it all to make it better."