For Keith Gundlach, the greatest reward of making FFA history is that two of his proteges embody the future of farming, today.

"They're going into agriculture - that's my source of satisfaction," Gundlach, FFA leader for the Randolph-Cambria-Friesland chapter, said of Benjamin Alsum, winner of the FFA's American Star in Agribusiness, and Tony Crescio, winner of the American Star in Agricultural Placement.

This is, in all likelihood, the first time in FFA history that two of the four winners in FFA's annual Star competition - its top awards - came from the same chapter.

FFA spokeswoman Julie Adams said she searched the organization's archives, in vain, for any precedent to this event, which occurred at the recent National FFA Convention in Indianapolis.

"We can safely say," she said, "that the Randolph-Cambria-Friesland chapter is the first to have two Star winners in the same year."

The National FFA Organization selected 16 finalists (four per award) for the organization's top awards: American Star Farmer, American Star in Agribusiness, American Star in Agricultural Placement and American Star in Agriscience.

"These Star awards recognize students who have developed outstanding agricultural skill and competency through their career development programs, demonstrated outstanding management skills, earned the American FFA Degree - the organization's highest level of accomplishment - and met other agricultural education, scholarship and leadership requirements," according to the National FFA's Web site.

A third member of the chapter, Alex Zimmerman, was a finalist for the Star Farmer award, which went to Slade Don Nightengale of the Cordell, Okla., chapter.

Winning the fourth Star award, Star in Agriscience, was Amy Lynn Robak of the Foley, Minn., chapter.

In addition to $4,000 cash prizes (including $2,000 for being one of the four finalists in each division), all four Stars have been invited to ride a float in the New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., sponsored by FFA and RFD-TV.

But sunny California was the farthest thing from Crescio's mind on a rainy Thursday afternoon, as he raced to harvest his carrots before the expected freeze of mid- to late November.

His other crops - yellow onions and peppermint - already are harvested.

Crescio, 21, said he's been farming for as long as he can remember on the land that his great-grandfather, Lawrence Crescio, acquired and that his grandfather, Jack Crescio, was the first of the Crescio family to farm.

The peppermint, he said, is grown in the mucky soil of an old lake bed, then harvested for oil and leaves.

"You might end up tasting my mint in your toothpaste," he said.

Like his friend Crescio, Alsum, 21, comes from a long line of family farmers.

But, while he helps his father, Scott Alsum, with the family's sweet corn business, of which he is part-owner, Alsum also owns outright two other agribusinesses - a custom hay-baling enterprise and Ben's Bovine Beauties, which sells numerous breeds of dairy and beef cattle.

Alsum's home answering machine message is: "Hello, you've reached Ben's Enterprises. We're either out baling hay or picking corn."

And that's the way he likes it.

"Farming is what I do. It's what I love," he said. "When a guy can get up in the morning and do a job he loves, it doesn't feel like working at all."

Gundlach said both Alsum and Crescio had, from the very beginning, a passion for agriculture that never wavered.

"You can pick out, pretty young, the kids that have that kind of dedication," he said. "There's an eagerness about them."

Alsum's life as a working farmer started when he was in middle school, helping with his family-owned business that sold sweet corn, vegetables, pumpkins and Indian corn at stands throughout southern Wisconsin. He's been able to buy increasing shares of the Alsum Sweet Corn business partly from the profits of his other two ventures.

Crescio also began working with the family farming enterprise as a middle-schooler. Over the years, he learned all aspects of the operation, and once won a national award for agriculture entrepreneurship, for starting a small business creating air fresheners and soaps made of mint oil.

His onions are sold to several buyer, including some from the Alsum family, and his carrots are processed and packaged at the Seneca cannery in Cambria.

Both praise Gundlach for his guidance and encouragement.

Crescio said his Star award "says a lot about my adviser, Mr. Gundlach. Here's a man who knows what he's talking about when it comes to agriculture."

Crescio and Alsum both are bullish on the future of family farming, but acknowledge that it's not an easy business to get into, especially for someone who did not come from a family farming background, as they did.

For young people thinking of pursuing an agriculture or agribusiness career, Crescio advises finding a job working with an established farmer, to get a taste of farming life.

Even as Thursday afternoon's rains continued, he said, "This is God's country - right in the middle of nowhere."

ljerde@capitalnewspapers.com

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