Tioga High School’s chapter for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America is headed to the 2025 National Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida, this July.
The Bulldogs have 10 students, split between five different projects, that have earned the opportunity to compete with FCCLA members from across the country.
“To advance to nationals, you have to place first or second in the state, so it's a pretty elite group, but our kids stepped up and made it happen,” Tioga FCCLA Advisor Christi Crowe said. After completing the gauntlet of regional and state-level competitions, Tioga will be represented on the national stage by Daylie Payne, Chloe Moore, Emily Ballinger, Lacie Gray, Citlaly Zuniga, Emma Cox, James Culp, Isabella Lewter, Mackenzie Lewter and Kennedy Slay.
On the individual side, Payne will compete in food innovations, level 1 category, and Moore will compete in the chapter in review, level 3 category.
In the group projects, the duo of Cox and Culp will compete in the Families Acting for Community Traffic Safety national program showcase, while Ballinger, Gray and Zuniga will compete in the chapter service project, level 3 category.
Lastly, the trio of Isabella, Mackenzie and Slay will compete in the interpersonal communications, level 2 category.
'The process of making it to nationals was honestly a little nerve-racking at first, because we didn't really know what we were going to do,' Slay said. 'Luckily, my teammates and I bounce off of each other well. We're really hard workers in whatever we do, so we were confident in our project, but making it to nationals was a very big deal for us because we've never done anything this big.'
The group held a bake sale at the Pirate Island Car Show in Collinsville on Saturday to help raise funds for their trip to Orlando.
'I have three granddaughters in Tioga's FCCLA chapter, [and] two of them qualified to go to the nationals this year with the school,' said Layne Lewter who owns Pirate Island with his wife Carrie Lewter. 'Last year's kids did the same thing. They went to the nationals in Seattle, so around this time last year we had the car show coming up and they were [planning] a bake sale, and I said, 'Hey, why don't you all come do it downtown?' When we found out they are going to the nationals again this year, we said, 'Come on back, raise some money and let us help you get to Orlando.'' The car show, which had 51 entrants this year, was started 15 years ago in honor of Layne's father Noel Lewter, who had a deep affinity for cars after growing up around his father's automobile repair shop on the square in Collinsville.
The event not only provides a fundraising opportunity for Tioga's FCCLA group, but it also provides funding for the Noel and Jacquita Lewter Memorial Scholarship.
The scholarship is awarded to Collinsville High School students entering the trades or field of education, with this year's recipients being Caleb Monk, who plans to become a diesel mechanic, and Brayden Vaughn, who plans to become a welder.
Layne's son, Austin Lewter, said he and his family are proud to give back to special communities like Collinsville and Tioga.
'We get out of life what we put into it, and these kids and these folks work hard, so it's good to see the community show up and support them,' he said. '… We, my wife Jennifer and I, found out early on that stuff like this doesn't happen just anywhere. I've seen kids get sick, or if there's a need somewhere, folks just show up. That doesn't happen everywhere, [and] it’s something we're blessed to have here.'
