LHS students take gold and silver at State FCCLA

Seven members of the Lovell High School chapter of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) and their advisor Alana Thackeray traveled to the FCCLA State convention in Cheyenne held March 28-30.[caption id="attachment_3252" align="alignright" width="413" caption="A group of students from Lovell High School (l-r) Heather Wilkerson, Journee Burton, Brianna Harvey, Tessa Watson, Krystina Croft, Lauren Steward and their advisor Alana Thackeray attended the FCCLA State convention in Cheyenne held March 28-30."][/caption]Mesa Matthews won the gold medal in the “Food Innovations” category for her planning and presentation of a vegan meal. This was the third gold medal for Matthews.The contest required that she plan the meal to be made in advance, frozen and then reheated before serving. Her meal included an all vegetable chili served with brown rice and spiced apples. The meal was only 400 calories and the judges were impressed with its high nutritional value. Prior to the convention, Matthews prepared the meal for two different groups and reported the feedback she received to the judges at the convention during her 15-minute presentation. She also presented information about the benefits of a vegan diet. Matthews has been on a vegan diet for a few years.Tessa Watson won the silver medal in the “Illustrated Talk” category. The title of her presentation was “Don’t Stress.” She spoke about how stress affects the human body.Journee Burton also won a silver medal in the “Teach and Train” category. Her presentation was about how drug use affects the brain. To prepare for her presentation Burton job shadowed and interviewed professional drug treatment counselors.Brianna Harvey also participated in the “Illustrated Talk” category. Her presentation entitled “What will you remember?” was about dementia. Harvey volunteers at the New Horizons Care Center in Lovell. She wanted to learn more about dementia after working with patients who suffer from the condition.Lauren Stewart participated in the “Focus on Children” category. She spoke on the topic of child abuse in her speech entitled, “It shouldn’t hurt to be a child.”Heather Wilkerson participated in “Life Event Planning.” For her project, she planned a charity walk to benefit Luke and Kjirstyn Welch. The couple will use the proceeds raised by Wilkerson to either adopt a child or to have a child of their own through the in vitro fertilization process. The walk will be held during Mustang Days.Krystina Croft also participated in Life Event Planning. Croft raised $3,500 by organizing a Zumba Fitness event for the Katey Winterholler family. Winterholler is recovering from a serious automobile accident.The group also participated in a “Feed the Children” food drive sponsored by FCCLA by contributing $300 to purchase 33 boxes of food. The food was donated to the Lovell Food Bank operated by the Lutheran Church in Lovell.According to Thackeray, one of the highlights of the event for the girls was listening to motivational speaker John Beede. Beede is a rock climber and used the climbing metaphor to talk about goal-setting.The FCCLA is a nonprofit national career and technical student organization for young men and women in Family and Consumer Sciences education in public and private school through grade 12.By Patti Carpenter