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WORLAND — Four Worland High School Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) members qualified for the national convention during state competition last week.

As a chapter, Worland also brought home top honors, earning Outstanding Small Chapter, which Advisor Brenda Trippel said is similar to winning a state title. They were also named a Four Star Chapter, the highest award a chapter can receive.

During the week of March 20, six FCCLA members, a chaperone and advisor Brenda Trippel traveled to Cheyenne to attend the Wyoming State FCCLA Leadership Convention and Competitions, according to Trippel. 

This year’s convention theme was “Peaks of Potential — Rise, Lead, Succeed.” 

Members competed in 33 competitions over the course of two days.

Earning a trip to the national convention with a first-place finish in National Programs in Action with her service project for water was McKenna Mickelson. 

The team of Taylor Lind, Jose Galarza and Jared Hanson qualified for nationals with a first place in Chapter in Review.

Emily Brown took first in extemporaneous speaking and second in baking.

Also attending and competing was Morgan Pennington.

Trippel said, “As a chapter, we won the State Officer Project for Families First by hosting a family game night for elementary children and their parents.

Worland also was among the chapters receiving the Four Star Chapter Award — Upton, Glenrock, Burlington, Worland, Saratoga, Cheyenne East, Lyman and Moorcroft Chapters.

Trippel said “This award is given to chapters based upon how many different projects and other activities members participated in during the year. The ‘4 Star’ is the highest level a chapter can achieve.”

Torrington was awarded the Three Star Chapter Award.

The Outstanding Large Chapter was Moorcroft FCCLA.  

Also during the conference, Darcy Sams, the adviser of the Moorcroft chapter was recognized with the Adviser of the Year award.

STATE CONVENTION

The Keynote speakers were a duo from COMETRY that motivated members to be positive leaders with a G.R.A.V.  method of leadership. There were also workshops and a service project for them to attend. One highlight of the convention was the National Leadership Academy program that was a series of five classes for members to develop their leadership skills.  

Trippel said that members also participated in a service project in which they made para-cord bracelets to be given to military personnel.

“These bracelets not only let our service men and women know that someone cares, but could even save their lives because the bracelets can be quickly unwound so that the para-cord can be used in an emergency,” she added.

New student Officers were also elected at the convention.  The new State Officers are: President Annika Coberly from Upton; Vice President Holly Hutchinson from Tongue River; Public Relations Liz Stephens from Upton and Secretary/Treasurer Taylor Reynolds from Moorcroft.  

The new District Officers are Emma Schroder from Tongue River, Kody Gotfredson from Burlington, Faith Anderson from Moorcroft and Caden Sweep from Mountain View.

FCCLA is a national organization that is “the only national career and technical student organization with the family as its central focus.” Students in the program study a wide variety of family and consumer sciences in a way that promotes personal growth and leadership development.  The career pathways include human services, hospitality and tourism, education and training and visual arts and design.

Membership in Wyoming has increased to approximately 900 members statewide.

Trippel said, “The 2018 State FCCLA Convention was a huge success for all those from Worland who were able to attend. Congratulations to all our Worland FCCLA members who helped our chapter win awards at the state level. We will begin our fundraising efforts to help the four students who qualified for the national competition after spring break.” Students will need to raise about $2,000 each to attend.

The National FCCLA Leadership Convention will be in Atlanta, Georgia this summer.