Saratoga FBLA Shines at State Conference

Simply Amazing. There’s no better way to describe the weekend that Saratoga FBLA members had at their annual State Leadership Conference. To begin, an attendance record was set when over 700 members from 38 schools across Wyoming converged on the Holiday Inn in Cheyenne, Wyoming March 14 through 16. Students were there to compete in a variety of business related topics with hopes of qualifying for a chance to compete this June in Anaheim, California at the National Leadership Conference. The Saratoga members did just that – qualify in mass.

The conference started on Thursday, March 14 with Keynote speaker Layman Hicks who shared his own unique story on how you can put a positive spin on your world and change your life forever. He presented powerful life principles you need in order to pursue your dreams and goals, and encouraged all members in attendance to Get Up, Get Out, and Go Get It With that inspiration, students began testing or attended workshops for the remainder of the day.

Social events capped the night as FBLA members participated in Rock Band or Just Dance competitions to earn money for the March of Dimes and bragging rights for their school. Saratoga formed the band “Big D and the Gyrating Taxidermists” who were not to be outdone. Members Daniel Kerbs, Tim Smith, Luke Lineberry and Cameron Collamer were crowd favorites who easily scored the most points and won the Rock Band Traveling Trophy that will now be proudly displayed in the new panther trophy case as you enter Saratoga Middle High School.

Friday, March 15 brought more objective testing and final performance events. After completing two hard days of testing, members unwound at the “glow” dance to end the night.

The much anticipated awards program finally arrived on Saturday, March 16 and Saratoga won as many or more trophies per member than any other school in attendance regardless of school size The awards were presented in alphabetical order by event name, and the first to be recognized were Tim Smith and Daniel Kerbs for their fourth place finish in Banking & Financial Systems. In Desktop Publishing, Dillon Boydstun and Shelby McGuire earned second place trophies. That was followed up by a second place for Daniel Kerbs in Economics. Next, the team of Cameron Collamer, Daniel Kerbs, and Shelby McGuire were presented 2nd place trophies for Emerging Business Issues.

As the awards program continued, Aaron Kerbs took over the show with an amazing streak of trophies and his ever present huge smile! He placed second in FBLA Principles and Procedures, second in Introduction to Business, first in Introduction to Business Communications, and earned another second for Introduction to Technology Concepts. Luke Lineberry earned a third place finish in Networking Concepts and Hunter Mason claimed second in Introduction to Business Communications before Aaron was called back on stage for his fifth trophy with teammates Amber Young, Cameron Collamer, and Daniel Kerbs for their second place finish in Parliamentary Procedures.

The last individual trophies were won by Hunter Mason for finishing second in Word Processing I, followed by Shelby McGuire first, with Amber Young second in Word Processing II. The energy and excitement of the day was something that won’t soon be forgotten. Congratulations Saratoga FBLA.

 

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