Olds High School is $20,000 closer to meeting its fundraising target for the 2015 Alberta Student Leadership Conference (ASLC) thanks to a donation from the Olds Lions Club announced on Nov. 18.
Luke Radau, of the ASLC student steering committee was in the middle of a leadership meeting when staff advisor Louan Statchuk broke the news to the group.
“It was just a complete thrill when Ms. Statchuk pulled the steering committee out of the meeting and said that we had received this grant from the Lions Club,” Radau said.
The student steering committee has been planning for the conference since May, booking speakers, seeking sponsors and preparing the event schedule. There's no feeling quite like seeing their efforts produce tangible results.
“It was surreal and it was a great moment because it feels like lots of the work we've been putting into this conference is finally paying off,” said Carter Cissell, another member.
“It's great to talk about the things that we're hoping to accomplish but when you get donations and you take steps forward like that, that's huge for the actual execution of the conference.”
Conference speakers have been booked and the lineup includes Grande Prairie country singer Tenille, American performance artist David Garibaldi and motivational speakers Cara Filler and Mark Scharenbroich.
At one point, the student committee had pursued Col. Chris Hadfield as a conference speaker, leveraging a contact that attended flight school with the retired Canadian astronaut as well as pitching the event to Speakers' Spotlight agency.
Ultimately, Hadfield's schedule would not allow him to attend, Cissell said.
However, he's content with the lineup they assembled.
“We have a nice diversity between the messages of the speakers which always helps to give kids more than one thing to go back to their own communities with or to apply to their own life,” he said.
The seven-member committee's next goals are to find people to lead the conference workshops as well as billets for delegates.
Cissell and Radau are in their Grade 12 years and both are balancing ASLC work with extracurricular activities and regular classes.
Radau said good time management has been crucial to getting everything done.
The year's been hectic but worth it, he said.
“I really like ASLC, what it stands for and what it provides kids with so it really makes the school year go by a lot faster and I like getting involved. It is tough but at the same time, I love it.”
