Stanley-Boyd FCCLA high school students participated in the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) National Leadership Conference in Seattle, Washington on June 29 to July 3. The FCCLA boasts a membership of over 237,000 student members, engaging more than 7,000-chapter advisers across 5,100 chapters. While the FCCLA continues to expand, it hopes to continue “fostering a vibrant community of passionate individuals committed to making a difference,” while helping students and teachers focus on various youth concerns.
Placing in the Top 10 of the Nation were Amanda Lew and Gracelyn Goettl, Sydney Yates and Kendall Sikora, and Grace Schmidt and Delani Mercier with their “Be A Buddy” STAR program. Lew and Goettl sold puppy chow at basketball games with proceeds being used to purchase and donate items off of the wish list for the Children’s Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis. The focus of the project of Yates and Sikora was on creating the new chapter in the middle school and establishing it as a club for middle schoolers, along with helping fellow FCCLA members. Other Stanley-Boyd competitors included Sydney Gundlach, Makenna Schuebel, Bella Goettl, Kylie Ryba, Emma Pawlak and Laney Fritz, and Alexis Seidl with projects including, putting together a plan to Promote FCCLA through research, the use of technology, and putting on the FCCLA STAR Project fair, putting words of encouragement and feminine hygiene bins in the girls high school bathrooms, and starting a business where goals were planned, income was projected, and products were then sold at a salon in the Twin Cities. Other projects included selling handmade bracelets to raise funds to buy pet food for a local shelter and make homemade dog toys from old T-shirts, collecting used dog and cat food bags to make reusable tote bags that were filled with toys, treats, and other animal care items that were then distributed to community members in need that had pets, and raising funds for the NICU at a Children’s Hospital.
FCCLA member Sydney Gundlach shared that the group was able to do some sightseeing in addition to the conference. “We not only got to be a part of the leadership conference to build our leadership skills, we were able to visit some city monuments such as the Seattle Space Needle, Dale Chihuly Glass Museum, and the Seattle Aquarium.”
The students expressed their thanks to Mrs. Kari Thorpe “for the organization of this trip and for always being an amazing role model for all Stanley-Boyd FCCLA members and all of her students as well.” They also gave a special thank you to Tom Opelt, Lisa Simon, and Sarah Schmidt “for chaperoning and helping guide these leaders to be the best they can be.”