A colorful building along a street in Tillamook, Oregon
|

Tillamook grad Tatum Lancaster wins national FFA award for her floral business

ByMegan Harlow

Photo: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Tatum Lancaster started out making corsages for school dances. On Thursday night in Indianapolis, the Tillamook High School graduate walked off the stage at Lucas Oil Stadium with a national title.

Lancaster, a 2026 graduate and member of the Tillamook FFA Chapter, was named the national winner of the 2026 FFA Agricultural Sales–Entrepreneurship Proficiency Award on Oct. 22 at the 99th National FFA Convention & Expo, according to an announcement shared by the Tillamook County Pioneer. It is the top national honor in her award area.

The winner was announced on stage as a surprise, in front of roughly 40,000 people in the home stadium of the Indianapolis Colts, with an estimated 30,000 more convention attendees following along.

A floriculture class and a business plan

The award recognizes Lancaster’s Supervised Agricultural Experience, or SAE, a floral design company she named Western Grace Floral Co.

The idea started in a floriculture class at Tillamook High School. Lancaster found she liked floral design and saw a way to turn that skill into income. She founded Western Grace Floral Co. in 2024, beginning with corsages and boutonnieres for school dances.

As her skills and customer list grew, the business expanded into special events, full-service wedding flowers and paid floral design classes. Along the way she handled the less visible parts of running a business: customer service, pricing, sales, marketing and keeping the books.

That last part matters in FFA competition. Proficiency awards are judged in large part on records. Applicants document their hours, income, expenses and growth over several years, and judges look at how a student’s project developed, not just how it looks at the finish line.

How the awards work

Supervised Agricultural Experiences are student-led, work-based projects that let agriculture students apply what they learn in class through a job, research or their own business. Along with classroom instruction and FFA activities, SAEs are one of the three central pieces of agricultural education in American high schools.

The National FFA proficiency awards recognize members whose SAEs show strong skill development and career experience. Students first compete at the state level. State winners are then evaluated nationally, and only four finalists are picked in each award area. One of those four is named the national winner at the convention.

Lancaster was named a national finalist earlier this year, which put her among the top four in the country in agricultural sales entrepreneurship before the final announcement in Indianapolis.

Tillamook’s ag tradition

In Tillamook County, agriculture means dairy first. The county’s farms supply the milk behind one of Oregon’s best-known food brands, and FFA has long been part of growing up on the coast for students from farm families and those who are not.

Lancaster’s win is a reminder that agriculture covers more than cows and grass. Floral design falls under the broad umbrella of horticulture and agricultural sales, and her business required the same mix of planning, customer work and risk that any farm operation does.

The Tillamook FFA Chapter is part of the Agricultural Sciences and Industrial Technology program at Tillamook High School, which combines classroom work, hands-on projects and leadership training.

On to Corvallis

Lancaster is now a student at Oregon State University, where she is focusing on marketing. She is continuing to build on the experience she gained running Western Grace Floral Co.

For a student who began by pinning flowers on dance dates, the jump to a national title came in about two years. The Tillamook announcement called her win a source of pride for the high school, the community and Oregon FFA.

More in Community