By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Twenty-six hours of driving and a pair of tornado warnings. That sums up most of the first two days of Barton County Youth Crew's trip to the Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America Conference (CADCA) in Chicago last month. Youth Crew members presented details about the trip to the Barton County Commission last Tuesday. Holly Bowyer, a Youth Crew parent and board member for Central Kansas Partnership, was pleased with how the kids represented Barton County.
"I just want to tell you that you guys should be extremely proud of these kids," she said. "Even Nichelle (Holinde) said, our first-timers, so many compliments. They were so well prepared. Barton County does an awesome job with the training aspects of Youth Crew and what it's all about. A lot of those groups had never done some of the things they did at the conference. Our youth were well-prepared."
The conference was held July 15-18. The group left at 4 a.m. and arrived in Chicago at 5 p.m., only to find themselves in a tornado warning. The next day, the group had to wait out another tornado warning while attending a performance by Blue Man Group.
Juvenile Services Prevention Advocate Tyler Morton shared with the commission a letter from another attendee at the conference. The woman had traveled to Chicago alone from Minnesota and was having a difficult time until running into the Barton County group.
"When you see these students who are in Chicago, without their parents, talking to people around them - not just their peers but locals and other travelers with such confidence - when you get to be silly with them, when you get the chance to see them before you leave and they ask you for a group photo and tell you they have adopted you into your family."
Eight Youth Crew members attended the conference, including five first-timers who spent time in the key essentials track. Two second-time members attended breakout or progressive prevention sessions, and Morton and three-time attendee Jasmine Figueroa attended the National Youth Advisory track.
Figueroa and Hoisington freshman MaKiah Weber were selected to attend meetings about Youth Leaders in Kansas (YLINK), and CADCA will pay for Figueroa to travel to Washington, D.C. in October to speak at a conference.
Other attendees in Chicago were: GBHS senior Damian Palma, Ellinwood junior Alvin Bowyer, GBHS sophomore Jamesray Short, GBHS freshman Brooklyn Cooley, Great Bend eighth grader Branson Holinde, and Hoisington seventh grader Mya Brewer.