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 The highlight of the week came on Thursday for three FCCLA
students as Max Coppinger, Olivia Letterle and Felipe Buenrostro,
who each "crushed it" during their quick question and answer
session, which earned each section office positions.
According to Max Coppinger, a junior and the oldest member of the
trio, "We went to Athens Christian Church and we had a FCCLA section
meeting and we all ran for section office and we all got in
actually." Freshman Olivia Letterle explained what the three went
through on Thursday at the section meeting, "You had to answer two
facts questions and one situation question and come up with a
one-liner relating to the wild side, which is the FCCLA theme this
year." She elaborated about the process by saying, "You're wanting
to explore your wild side with FCCLA, so we're wanting you to
explore different sides of you that you haven't explored before."
Another freshman who crushed the competition on Thursday was Felipe
Buenrostro, who offered this, "It was something new, something I
look forward to doing in the future and I think it was fun for all
of us." Buenrostro was also the highest rated competitor Thursday in
the public speaking creed, scoring a 99 out of 100 on his
presentation.
 All three look forward to exploring their wild side as they explore
opportunities outside of their comfort zone and the trio also
indicated they have bigger dreams within FCCLA. The trio laughed
when it was noted that they were a perfect 3-3 Thursday as the only
three students from Mount Pulaski running for section office and
they each earned a spot, not an easy task for anyone, let alone a
freshman, or two in this case. Also worth noting is that six
students overall were elected section officers, so that's an
incredible accomplishment having three of them from Mount Pulaski.
Meanwhile, the highlight for the rest of the student body was the
"Crushes" that were distributed 8th hour during the day on Friday.
Students purchased for $1.00 cans of Crush Soda, in different
flavors, and had them delivered with handwritten notes on them to
their "crushes." This is something the students look forward to each
year as FCCLA week always coincides with Valentine's Day.
According to FCCLA adviser, Wyatt Waterkotte, "FCCLA Week is always
the week of Valentine's Day, since Valentine's colors are red and
white, FCCLA's colors are red and white, so I suppose years ago they
thought that would be the perfect time to have it, which lends
itself well to some of the activities that we do."
Waterkotte noted that throughout the week at Mount Pulaski High
School there were a dress-up days everyday featuring these themes:
Mismatch Day, Twin Day, Blast from the Past Day, Professional Dress,
and Red and White Day.
"Also throughout the week there have been different quizzes out on
my bulletin board that are FCCLA quizzes about the organization. The
quizzes are ten questions each and if the kids get all the questions
right they get a heart-shaped Reese's, so this encourages them to
learn something about the organization."
Waterkotte also talked about the "Crushes" that FCCLA sells as part
of the group's fundraising efforts. "We've also been selling
"Crushes." We have the varying colors. Oranges represents
friendship, grapes represent having a crush on someone, and
strawberries represent loving someone. The students buy them for a
dollar and they get a little personalized note that they can write
whatever they want and that gets attached to the can, and we'll
deliver them 8th hour." At last count, 445 crushes had been sold
among the student body that consists of 178 students. "We actually
had a group this year that banded together to make sure that
everybody got one. They came in after school and wanted a list of
anybody who had not gotten one and then they sent out crushes so
that everybody got one." A nice touch at a small school.
 Another nice touch at a small school is the 'Teacher Appreciation
Breakfast' FCCLA puts on during FCCLA week. "The teachers are just
so very understanding of everything FCCLA does throughout the year."
Noting that students often have to miss class and makeup work due to
attending FCCLA events, Waterkotte is very appreciative of the
teachers. "Since they work so well with FCCLA throughout the year,
it's the least we can do to be appreciative of them."
Students came in early Friday morning to serve nearly 20 teachers
pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, juice, milk and coffee. In
addition to the breakfast and the fun activities at the school this
week, 24 students from the Mount Pulaski FCCLA traveled to Athens to
the Section 12 meeting.
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 Waterkotte noted how every year this meeting falls on the
Thursday of FCCLA week. "As if the week isn't already busy
enough," he laughed. 106 students representing seven different
schools were present at the section meeting in Athens. Athens,
Williamsville, Rochester, Greenfield, Mount Pulaski, Midwest
Central and New Berlin all make up Section 12. "There's actually
a lot of schools that fall in the geographic boundaries of our
section, but a surprisingly small number of them have FCCLA
chapters. Progressively more and more schools are cutting FCCLA."
Schools like Delavan, Springfield Southeast and Capitol Area
Career Center have cut their FCCLA programs in recent years,
according to Waterkotte. "Apparently, FCCLA is not being seen as
important, but the students who were there would tell you that
it was incredibly important.
There are a variety of leadership-based workshops especially
focusing on family and consumer sciences, food and nutrition
preparation, dietary, dairy and job skills. Those types of
things were the workshops."
Buffalo Wild Wings was just one of the companies on hand talking
to the students about how to work in food service and how you
get hired in food service, according to Waterkotte.
The Dairy Council was on hand doing a cheese-tasting and talking
about probiotics, dairy, nutrition, calcium and minerals.
Lincoln Land Culinary School was also there talking about the
culinary arts and they did a culinary demonstration and informed
students about culinary careers.
"The Army National Guard also spoke about military careers,
especially those that relate to nutrition and fitness,"
Waterkotte said. They even handed out MRE's to the students as
well as setting up an inflatable obstacle course for the
students to conquer.
 Finally, Mount Pulaski students competed Thursday in
parliamentary procedure, chapter service project display, public
speaking creed, apparel construction and job interview. All of
the Mount Pulaski students competing Thursday did well enough to
advance to the state competition April 17-18 in Springfield.
Waterkotte said that Hannah Riedle, Lauren Thompson and Morgan
Kinnard all have the potential to advance to nationals this year
with their projects, while the others are just competing in
state level events.
The national conference this year will be in Washington, D.C.
Going to nationals requires lots of fundraising and Waterkotte
has more things planned for the future for the Mount Pulaski
FCCLA. In May the group plans to sell chocolate covered
strawberries just in time for Mother's Day. They will also be
making homemade strawberry pies later in the month of May, and
Waterkotte plans to schedule a trivia night sometime during the
month of May as well.
Once again, Waterkotte, who has been the Family and Consumer
Science teacher at Mount Pulaski for five years now, is pleased
with his group of students who are willing to "go out on a limb"
and take a risk and even explore the wild side.
Waterkotte is passionate about his students. His advice is to,
"put yourself out there because that's the only way that you
actually get anywhere in life...is by occasionally taking a
risk. In my opinion, students need to know that life is full of
little disappointments. So if you work hard and you put in all
the effort that you possibly can, and you do your absolute best,
sometimes you still don't make it. It's important that even if
that happens, you keep on trying and trying to do your best. We
were lucky that all three of them got elected but sometimes that
doesn't happen and I like them to be prepared for that
possibility...and so they all put themselves out there and they
all took a chance and it worked out for them."
Congratulations and best of luck to the Mount Pulaski FCCLA.
[Teena Lowery]
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