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Waccamaw's FCCLA wins state honor
5/9/2008 | Today's Georgetown Times Online Edition
Published on 3/25/2008
By Clayton Stairs
cstairs@gtowntimes.com
Now, it's on to the nationals!
Students of Waccamaw High School (WHS) who are part of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) club won a recent state competition in Columbia, and will now compete against other FCCLA groups around the country in the national competition.
They will be competing at the National Convention and STAR Events competition in Orlando, Fla., from July 13 to 17.
Nancy Oliver, a family and consumer science teacher at WHS who is the advisor for the FCCLA, says she is "very pleased" that they won the state's top award for the fourth year in a row.
"I expected them to win," Oliver said. "I am so proud of these girls. They worked hard and had a lot of support from the community."
A very important part of the competition was the FCCLA's chapter service project titled "Head Huggers," which they completed last month. The members gathered one Saturday to sew turbans for cancer patients after several people at the school had been diagnosed with this terrible disease.
They also created kits for anyone in the community who would like to participate and ended up with more than 100 turbans, which was their goal. These turbans were donated to the Francis B. Ford Cancer Center of Georgetown and the American Cancer Society in Myrtle Beach for cancer/ chemotherapy patients.
"It was a very successful project," Oliver said. "We don't even know how many turbans were created by people in the community because they were not all turned in to us, but we received a lot of requests."
During the competition, FCCLA members Nicole Scott and Erica Sumner, both seniors, and sophomore Shelby Cleveland took part in a skit to demonstrate the importance of their project. The students used "I Dream of Genie" as a theme for their display and skit.
Sumner dressed as Genie, who appeared to one of the students in a dream. When asked to make a wish, the student replied, "I would like to make a difference in the lives of cancer/chemo-therapy patients ... I just want them to feel better about themselves."
Genie told the student to go to Mrs. Oliver's room at a certain time on a certain day and "let the magic begin." The student woke up and decided to talk to Mrs. Oliver about her dream. She finds a FCCLA meeting in Mrs. Oliver's room where she presents her idea.
"Following the skit they spoke for 10 minutes about the project and the planning process," Oliver said. "They stated how our FCCLA club, along with teachers, students and community members became an 'extended family with one common goal,' to make turbans for cancer/chemotherapy patients. They did a great job."
Scott, a senior who is vice-president of the FCCLA and has also served as a S.C. State officer this year, says that the WHS FCCLA club deserves to go to nationals.
"I think the skit is the best thing we've ever done," Scott said. "It was very entertaining."
Sumner agrees.
"Since this was my first time in the competition, I was really excited that we won," Sumner said. "Being part of the FCCLA club is so much fun and it is good to help people in our community."
