Students in Patriot High School’s Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) club are the national high school award recipients for the FCCLA’s “Stand Up” advocacy program. The award was given for their submitted project, “No More Trash bags,” which focused on collecting donations for foster children. All the collected donations were given to Comfort Cases, a non-profit organization in Rockville, Maryland that provides comfort and personal care items to foster children.
Abby Trapani, Patriot FCCLA president, stated “We feel honored to have been given this award since we worked extremely hard to make sure lives were positively changed with this project; we plan to use the award toward more community service projects and making an impact on our community.”
Kathryn Jett-McVea, FCCLA adviser, shared more about the project students submitted for consideration for this national award. “Students collected and filled 48 backpacks with pajamas, books, blankets, […] toiletries, etc. They also made 24 full-size tie fleece blankets for the organization to give out. The Patriot High FCCLA chapter was recognized with a plaque at our National Leadership Conference in San Diego [this summer] and awarded $1,000 to continue our philanthropic efforts.”
The “Stand Up” advocacy program is a peer education initiative that allows students to develop, plan, execute, manage, and reflect on their own advocacy or service projects that enhance the quality of life in their community.
Students from the FCCLA club also placed at the individual and team level:
Jett-McVea and Jessica Stott-Hinnefeld are the Patriot FCCLA advisors.