Bloomfield FCCLA Travels To Kearney

The Bloomfield  FCCLA Chapter attended the FCCLA State Peer Education Conference held in Kearney on Feb. 25. The theme of the meeting was “Nebraska Peer Education in the SPOTlight”.  Throughout the conference, three FCCLA National Programs were “SPOTlighted” including STOP the violence, career connections and FACTS (families acting for community traffic safety).  Members were introduced to the goals and units of each of these programs and provided with opportunities to brainstorm project ideas for their chapters.

Chapters also have the opportunity to participate in each peer team’s outreach project and apply for Capture the Action awards for projects their chapter’s completed that relate to one of the three national program focuses. 

Each year the Nebraska State Peer Officer Teams also select a community service outreach project.  This year the officer team encouraged chapters to collect items to donate to their local domestic violence shelters.  Nebraska FCCLA chapters donated over 7,500 items.

During opening session, finalists for the 2019-2020 State Peer Officer Team were recognized.  Those recognized from Bloomfield were Alexandra Eisenhauer for the Career Leader Team and Grace Kuchar for the Community Leader Team.

In addition, there were several speakers and sessions. The keynote speaker was Tom Thelen. Tom is a nationally recognized author and founder of VictimProof:The Student’s Guide to End Bullying. His message taught students how to overcome the victim mindset and how to respond to bullying.  Tom’s presentation at the conference was sponsored by MaKenna’s Rae of Hope, which was founded in 2017 in Kearney, Nebraska.  The mission of McKenna’s Rae of Hope Foundation is to prevent teen suicide by fostering awareness, resilience, and social change.

There were also three breakout sessions about issues related to the FCCLA National Programs.  The first session was “SPOTlight on National Programs!”  In this session, the State Peer Officers educated members their National Program focus areas as well as how to become a State Peer Education Officer.

Hannah Raudsepp presented “Building Your Business from the Ground Up”.  Hannah is a former Mullen FCCLA member and the founder of Honest Beef.  Her session educated members on entrepreneurship, e-commerce and marketing. Members explored what makes a good idea, how to research if it will be successful, and finally - how to get the business idea off the ground. Members had the opportunity to brainstorm business ideas and create a basic business plan for many of those ideas.
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Nebraska State Patrol Sergeant Dean Riedel led a session about Teens and Safe Driving Habits. He led students in a demonstration illustrating how even a small distraction can make a big difference in reaction times when driving.  He encouraged students to limit their distractions in order to stay safe on the road.