6,100 TEENS FROM ACROSS THE NATION GATHER IN CHICAGO TO CELEBRATE 65 YEARS OF LEADERSHIP
by Mrs. Runyon
August 23, 2010
Chicago, IL. – More than 6,100 Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) members, advisers, alumni, and guests from across the country gathered in Chicago, Illinois, July 4-8 for FCCLA’s 2010 National Leadership Conference.
FCCLA: The Ultimate Leadership Experience is a dynamic and effective national student organization that helps young men and women become leaders and address important personal, family, work, and societal issues through Family and Consumer Sciences education. FCCLA has over 200,000 members and over 6,500 chapters from 50 state associations, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The organization has involved more than eleven million youth since its founding in 1945.
The conference marked a milestone birthday for FCCLA and celebrated “65 Years of Leadership”. The conference began with a 4th of July birthday celebration at the Navy Pier. Participants in the conference actively confronted the issues and challenges facing youth today, and worked toward gaining the life skills needed to meet those challenges. Over 3,200 students took part in FCCLA’s competitive events which provide several opportunities for students to gain recognition for their individual, team, and chapter activities. Bloomfield qualified 2 students to compete in these events with their Community Service STAR project, Project Haiti. Emily Kersten and Ashley Fiedler raised funds for purchasing water filtration systems for Haiti that were delivered to Haiti the day of the earthquake. They also collected fabric and sewing notions that were delivered to Haiti in May to help teach the women of Haiti how to sew and provide extra income for their families. Emily and Ashley received a Gold Medal for their presentation and scored 99 out of 100 points!STAR Events (Students Taking Action with Recognition) are competitive events in which members are recognized for proficiency and achievement in chapter and individual projects, leadership skills, and career preparation. STAR Events offer individual skill development and application of learning through the following activities:
- cooperative – teams work to accomplish specific goals
- individualized – an individual member works alone to accomplish specific goals
- competitive – individual or team performance measured by an established set of criteria.
We are so proud of Ashley and Emily and congratulate them for a job well done! We would like to say thank you to the school administration, the school board, the Bloomfield Community, the parents, and FCCLA for making this trip possible and for all of your support! Thank you again for supporting our students at Bloomfield Community Schools and allowing them to have such awesome educational opportunities!
