BIC Jr. FCCLA teams qualify for Nationals

Buffalo Island Central Junior High FCCLA members recently competed in the State Conference with two teams winning first place qualifying them to go Nationals. Nationals will be held in Anaheim, Calif., in July. The two teams won first place in District with their projects qualifying them to compete in State.

Students going to State included Julie Thompson, Kaytie Castanon, Blaire Wildy, Valerie Pipkin, Erin James, Coral Burke, Kaley Hawkins, Cortney Myers, Hannah Poe, Kelsey Strickland, and Madison Greathouse.

The BIC Junior High FCCLA is under the direction of Kylee Crosskno who expressed her congratulations to the girls for their outstanding work.

"This is our second year to compete and both years we have had students qualify for Nationals," Ms. Crosskno said.

One of the first place state winning teams is made up of Blaire Wildy, Valerie Pipkin and Erin James. Their project was Focusing on Children Fire Safety. Blaire is a seventh grade student and Valerie and Erin are eighth grade students.

This is Erin's second year to qualify for the Nationals. Last year's National event was held in Chicago and she and her team won silver.

This year's team was two points away from a perfect score in the state competition.

"We lost two points for having too many stickers on our board," Erin said.

"We had a child in our own elementary school that was burned in a fire," Blaire said. "He was seriously injured and had to have a lot of surgeries. That gave us the idea for a project to educate children on fire safety."

They said they added costumes for the state competition.

The second first place team is made up of eighth graders Kelsey Strickland, Hannah Poe, and Madison Greathouse. Their project was in the Food innovation category. They created a non-perishable sports extreme mix snack food.

They, too, received gold in the District and the State. The girls did their research using ingredients such as pretzels, Corn Chex, Bugles, using a secret seasoning.

They all agreed it was something they would eat and enjoy and everyone they tested it and agreed with them.

The girls are planning on making a presentation of their winning projects to the BIC School Board.

The girls are starting a fundraising campaign to raise money to go to Nationals. They are happy to have the opportunity to go. They are planning a car wash, yard sale, bake sales, and many other events. They said any and all donations will be appreciated.

They have sponsored one fund raising event this year with the BIC Junior High FFA. They recently held an auction and dinner.

It was a success and the girls expressed their appreciation to everyone who participated.