Bound for nationals

The projects have been completed, presentations have been rehearsed and fundraising is over. What comes next is a trip to Atlanta, Georgia.
A group of students from the Glenrock High School Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) chapter will be traveling to the south to participate in the National competition.
“I took 19 members to state this year. Of the 19 the ones who could compete at the national level all placed first which is outstanding because you go up against the whole state of Wyoming” FCCLA Advisor Candace Stoll said.
The projects that the students are taking to nationals vary from community involvement, outreach, hospitality and tourism.
One project was raising funds, getting hair donated and raising cancer awareness.
“I did a project with Sariah St. Clair and we did a community service project, it was an 8 by 8 project. We focused mainly on benefiting cancer patients,” FCCLA student Kassandra Baker said. “We set up cans around town for people to put donations in. They could donate $8 or eight inches of hair. We partnered with Shear Heaven here in Glenrock and they cut all the hair.”
They partnered with Pantene who received the donated locks and will be making them into wigs for cancer patients.
“We partnered with Pantene and the American Cancer Society. Pantene has arranged to make wigs for cancer patients in St. Judes and Denver Children’s Hospital. We chose them because they don’t charge to donate the hair or charge the patient for the wig,” Baker said.
In total 26 inches of hair was donated by the end of their project.
Community outreach extended to the elementary school students with a project by Yesi Hermosillo and Payton Steinmetz.
“We worked with the Glenrock Police Department and the Highway Patrol, Steinmetz said. “We went down to the elementary school for a day and we taught the kids from kindergarten to fourth grade.”
Hermosillo and Steinmetz did activities with the students and showed them the proper way to use a seat belt and booster seat.
The kids participated in drawing and other activities. With the help of a wood model car with an egg they demonstrated the reason why seatbelts are important.
The Wyoming Highway Patrol participated with a convincer.
“The Highway Patrol, they had a convincer, a seat with a bear. If you push the bear forward the seat belt tightens. The kids really loved it,” Steinmetz said.
The students are involved in every aspect of research, development and implementations of the projects. They also do a follow up to see how effective the project was.
Some projects didn’t end right away either.
“Not only did they work with the children but they listened to the children. They  realized that some of them said they didn’t even have booster seats,” Stoll said.
So the students jumped into action.
“They came to me and asked what they could do about it. They took it upon themselves and contacted our superintendent to see if they could send an email through the principal,” Stoll said. “They sent out a blanket letter saying that if anyone needs a booster seat to reply yes. They found out how many were needed and went and bought them. We ended up purchasing six seats.”
Hospitality and tourism was the third project worked on by Megan Buettgenback. She was involved in the culinary program this past year and used that as a stepping stone to develop and plan a restaurant business.
“My project name was Kutz,” Buettgenback said. “I added a customer service strategy, compared it to a few other local restaurants, and built websites and social media accounts. It was really rewarding because we put a lot of hard work into it.”
Stoll has no problem talking about these kids and how they are becoming involved in their community.
“You’re just seeing a tip of what these kids have done, these guys are amazing kids,” Stoll said. “FCCLA has allowed them to branch out into the community.”
The FCCLA members go to Denver twice a year and hang out with kids at Denver Children’s Hospital and last Christmas they adopted 12 kids in need, bringing them presents so they would have something on Christmas morning.
In order to get to Atlanta, the kids had to raise $1,500 each to cover costs. One big fundraiser they had was a raffle for a 1997 GMC Suburban. In total $7,900 was raised and the kids are excited for their trip.
The students leave June 26 and return July 3. The competition isn’t the only thing these kids will do while in Atlanta. A baseball game, amusement park and sightseeing is on the agenda.
Stoll is excited to see what her FCCLA students will accomplish at nationals.
“We have a great group of kids here,” she said.