FCCLA Travels to Kearney
Launch the media gallery 1 playerFCCLA Travels to Kearney
by Sydney Acklie
The Nebraska Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) Peer Education Retreat was held on Monday, February 24, at the Kearney Holiday Inn, and Pierce’s FCCLA chapter was among those who attended.
The theme was “SPOT Here, SPOT There, SPOT Everywhere.” SPOT is the acronym for the three FCCLA State Peer Officer Teams who serve throughout the year to educate other students.
There were eleven members from the Pierce FCCLA Chapter who attended this conference. These members were Kaylee Dankert, Andrea Houska, Taylor Williams, Jasmine Elsberry, Cassandra Rinkel, Megan Colsden, Madison Siedschlag, Breane Hoffman, Krista Rystrom, Hannah Pritchett, and Alissa Hoffmann. Alissa Hoffman is the Vice Chairperson for the Families First Team, which is apart of the Peer Education Team. Also in attendance from Pierce were FCCLA sponsor Cheryl Timm and Connie Hoffmann, who helped to chaperone the Pierce students.
The day was filled with messages from several speakers. The keynote speaker was Mike Smith, who spoke to the members about how to help the less fortunate and also how to take action and leave their own legacy. In addition to giving the keynote speech, Mike Smith, whose campaign “Skate for Change” works to give socks to the homeless, also enlisted the assistance of FCCLA members at the retreat. At the Peer Education retreat, FCCLA helped Mike get 528 pairs of socks.
Other speakers for the day included Britnie Olson, leading a Zumba session; the FCCLA State Peer Officer teams, who educated members on aspects of family, finance, and health; and Pierce High’s own Gary Shada, who spoke about Down syndrome. Shada said after the retreat, “I think it was a great event. The speakers were from a wide variety and covered a large area of topics. Everyone from sponsors to students was courteous, genuine, and pleasant. I had a number of people that shared personal stories. One school even told me that they would try and put together an event based on my presentation.”
Retreats like this are very beneficial to FCCLA members. The Pierce chapter adviser Cheryl Timm said, “One of the things to take away from this retreat would be that we as people need to help the less fortunate.”
