Five national qualifiers have two months to raise money for trip to Calif.
By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
This year, five students from the Cheney High School FCCLA club qualified for their national competition. Also this year, the state wasn't able to come through with money to help the students fund their trip to Anaheim, Calif.
After spending hours working on their projects for S.T.A.R. events—S.T.A.R. stands for Students Taking Action with Recognition—Linnea Kessler, Jenny Kim, Brooklyn Marsh, Kayla Westhoff and Karra Plummer all placed first in their categories at the state competition last month. Now that they've had a few weeks to celebrate, they are refocusing to raise more than $7,000 for their trip to the national competition in July.
“The budget has gradually, gradually been diminishing, so by the time we spent our money going to state, it was gone,” club adviser Karlyn Urdahl said. “That was the first time that's ever happened to us, and this is the first time I've had five kids qualify at one time. This is the most I've ever had in one time, so it's awesome and it's a life changing experience.”
FCCLA, which stands for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, has been around for 65 years, and while it may have a reputation for being little more than a “home ec.” club, the members at CHS say it focuses on leadership and offers a wide variety of projects for many different interests.
Before they ever set foot in front of judges at the state competition, the students spent months preparing their projects. Kessler and Kim planned and executed a community carnival at the high school in the “Promote and Publicize” category, raising more than $1,000 for Children's Miracle Network; Plummer designed and fashioned a dress in the “Fashion Construction” category and Marsh and Westhoff put together a business plan for a start-up bakery in the “Entrepreneurship” category, filling a thick binder with budgets, loan information, space requirements and tax forms.
The students said the preparations and subsequent presentations before judges were challenging, but each of them said they were glad they put in the work.
“For me it's something that I've succeeded in and all my hard work actually pays off, because in sports and school I'm not awful but I'm pretty average,” Westhoff said. “This is something that I can succeed in for once.”
The students are hoping for support from the community outside CHS, and are contacting local businesses for help. They've launched an FCCLA booster club, like similar clubs for sports, to gain funds as well as awareness. Plummer, the club president, said FCCLA is similar to sports when it comes to building confidence and leadership, and even better when it comes to college preparedness and organization.
Businesses can also support FCCLA by donating used ink cartridges to the students, who plan to recycle them for small rebates. Aside from doing manual labor and yard work around town, the students are also planning a concert for CHS students as well as a silent auction in June.
Urdahl said she's concerned about the large amount of money they need to raise, but she's confident the students will work hard.
“I'm not going to ever say, ‘Well, we just can't go. There's no money.' So we'll just scramble,” she said. “They're going to have to work their little butts off and they're all probably going to have to pay some money out of their own pockets too.”
The students are determined to raise enough money to afford the trip. Plummer went to nationals last year as well, and called it “life changing.”
“Not many high school kids get this opportunity, getting to travel,” Marsh added. “It's such hard work but it's so worth it.”
For more information about the CHS FCCLA club's work, contact Karlyn Urdahl at 559-4079 or kurdahl@cheneysd.org.
Becky Thomas can be reached at becky@cheneyfreepress.com.
Reader Comments(0)