K.A.Y.s Host Unit Conference
By Doug Carder
Leadership, teamwork and community service were recurring themes throughout the Kansas Association of Youth’s Unit Conference on Friday at Osawatomie High School.
About 200 students from 15 area high schools attended the conference.
Students heard K.A.Y. chapter presidents talk about their clubs’ activities, and were entertained by Osawatomie students Lee Chamber and Alex Cochrane who performed the skit “Gone Batty.”
Guest speaker Kirk Johnson, pastor of Lighthouse Presbyterian Church in Paola, talked to the group about what makes a good leader. And guest speaker Beth Waddle, with the homeless shelter My Father’s House of Paola, talked to the students about how they can get involved in volunteer work. Waddle’s presentation also included an inspirational talk from one of the homeless guests at My Father’s House.
During the Home on the Range team-building exercise, the students broke into groups and built a tower of balloons.
“Whereas the fall conference provides more information about projects K.A.Y. chapters can do, this conference focuses more on leadership and on teamwork like building the balloon towers,” said Patty Trull, sponsor of the Osawatomie K.A.Y. Chapter. “It’s a good team-building exercise because each group (building a tower) is made up of students from different schools.
“The conference provides a good opportunity to meet kids from other schools and talk about what their chapters are doing,” said Trull, who was keeping her fingers crossed the weather would cooperate Friday since the event had already been postponed from its original Jan. 21 date because of inclement weather.
In another exercise titled “Kansas: Love It and Lead It,” the K.A.Y. members made memory books for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
“The books contain positive pictures of children, animals and other topics that can help start a conversation with these patients,” said Kathryn Wilson, vice president of the Osawatomie K.A.Y. Chapter who organized the memory book project. The books are used by area hospices and nursing homes. “If a person with Alzheimer’s sees a picture of a child making cookies, and you say, ‘I bet you used to make cookies with your children,’ that might help start a conversation.”
Osawatomie chapter president Joe Van Vlack said he was pleased with how the conference went.
“It’s a great opportunity to meet students from other schools,” Van Vlack said. “We’ve been planning this for more than two months, and I think it went pretty well.”
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Posted by admin
on Mar 2 2011. Filed under News and Updates.
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