Local FFA Member Earns Big Award at State Convention

(KNSI) — The Minnesota State FFA Convention is in full swing, and a local business owner received a big honor.

William Benjamin Bugbee of Paynesville was named Star of Agribusiness for his supervised agricultural experience involving his pontoon and jet ski rental business, Water Ready Rentals. Finalists are chosen based on outstanding achievement, active FFA participation, and nonproduction entrepreneurial agriculture business.

Bugbee, whose family is part of the Bugbee Hive Resorts on Lake Koronis, started in 2019 after seeing the need for reliable and affordable pontoons. “The opportunity was sort of presented to me when my dad finally gave up on the business and said, ‘Ben, it’s your time to take this over.’ We had no inventory, so we purchased some pontoons, and well, I took it from there.”

Bugbee says the competition was impressive, and “It is just an absolute honor to be recognized. It’s an honor to be competing with them, but then to be awarded the Star of Agribusiness is just incredible. It’s just truly a treat to be here at the State Convention and receive this award. So I want to thank the Minnesota FFA for putting this on and, again, just truly an honor to have received this award.”

Bugbee expressed his gratitude to the local FFA community, and especially to ag teacher and FFA advisor Natalie Utsch for being “instrumental in my FFA career, pushing me to just join in general.” He said they spent more than 40 hours working on the application. He thanked his parents for helping get the business started and his employee Lori Laudenbach for making the business run smoothly. He also thanked the Paynesville community at large for “helping me become involved with all sorts of community organizations and cheering me on as we’ve gone to state here, as well as just with anything in the school and with my business.”

Bugbee says he’s humbled by the honor and encourages others to get involved with their local FFA saying it’s a treat and opens new doors for leadership experiences, better public speakers, and better community members.

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The Star Awards are sponsored by Compeer Financial.

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