Oklahoma Youth Attend AFR Leadership Summit Teen Session

Approximately 58 students, grades 7-9, attended the teen session of the 2018 AFR Leadership Summit, July 22-24 at the Heartland Conference Center in Oklahoma City.

Summit sessions focus on leadership development and improving the lives of others through team-building exercises and personal reflection. These lessons can be applied now or later on as they begin their professional careers.

One of several team-building exercises included a service project where participants constructed 35 blankets for Project Linus. According to their website, the mission of Project Linus is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers.” Since 1995 Project Linus has distributed over 7,020,362 blankets to children nationwide and providing them with a sense of security.

“This is a great opportunity for our participants to learn key leadership skills to apply in their personal lives and understand the importance of giving back to their charity of choice,” said Micaela Danker, AFR/OFU youth development coordinator. “We hope the skills they learn here will help them feel more confident at a speech contest this fall, make them stand out as on officer of a collegiate group or land their dream job down the road.”

The history of AFR is rich with culture and growth and began with Oklahoma Farmers Union. For more than 40 years the farm organization has sponsored a leadership summit for the state’s top young leaders. Many of the participants have taken what they have learned at the summit back to their communities and served in greater leadership roles at the local and state levels.

For more information on how you can become involved with Project Linus, go to http://www.projectlinus.org/volunteer/.

 

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