Sanford FCCLA makes a difference

SANFORD — Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is the only national career and technical student organization with the family as its central focus. Its members improve themselves, their families, and communities through service.  

The Sanford FCCLA Chapter has been hard at work completing numerous worthwhile projects. This year, Sanford members worked as a team to complete two chapter service projects. One project focused on the men and women serving our country. Supplies donated by students in the elementary and jr/sr high school were collected and shipped to service men and women. The chapter also wrote thank you letters to veterans in the area as well as to service men/women abroad. In addition, care packages were sent to two troops serving overseas.

Another chapter project focused on supporting newborns and their families by welcoming them with soft, warm baby hats. Members made more than 100 hats for newborn babies that will be donated to the local hospital. This project also raised money for the March of Dimes which is a service partner of FCCLA.  

In addition to the chapter service projects, members have been busy doing numerous individual and group projects. Last week, one group held a Bike Rodeo for all elementary students. This group went into each class and presented a lesson on bike safety, which taught students the proper and safe way to ride a bike. Elementary students were then able to participate in a Bike Rodeo where they were able to demonstrate all the safety rules they had learned. The group raised more than $1,200, so they were able to give every elementary student a new bike helmet.

Other projects include drug prevention, emergency preparedness, dating violence, obesity prevention, anti-bullying, suicide prevention and the harmful effects on communication from excess cell phone usage.  
Over the years, many Valley schools have lost their FCCLA chapters. Presently, there are only two chapters in the San Luis Valley: Centauri and Sanford. FCCLA offers a wonderful opportunity for students to learn leadership skills along with organization, and speaking skills. It helps students see the benefit of service and strengthens families and communities. Sanford FCCLA would like to thank the Sanford students, teachers, administrators, school board, and the Sanford community for their support. They would also like to thank the many businesses and organizations in the San Luis Valley that have supported FCCLA.