Nine students from the Montgomery County R-II School District recently made the 2,010-mile trip to Seattle, Wash., to participate in the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America National Leadership Conference.

It turned out to be a memorable trip for Cohen Beattie, Alyssa Davis, Brady Falloon, Mariah Fish, Aurora Gibson, Anna Johnson, sisters Alaina and Olivia Spurgeon and Lydia Zerr.

Six of the students brought home gold medals and two received bronze medals at the five-day conference, which started on June 29 and ended on July 3. Mariah, Cohen, Brady, Aurora, Alyssa and Anna were the gold medal winners, while Alaina and Lydia earned bronze medals.

Cohen, Alyssa, Brady, Aurora, Anna, Lydia and Alaina Spurgeon competed in the middle school level, while Mariah represented R-II in the high school level.

“I think it is so awesome for these kids to feel that level of accomplishment on a national stage,” Montgomery County High School FCCLA adviser Beth Beattie said.

Also, Olivia Spurgeon, who will be a sophomore at MCHS this fall, wasn’t in competition at nationals, but went to Seattle to attend the national leadership training to improve on her leadership skills. She is the Missouri Region 4 FCCLA president.

“I loved attending the National Showcase,” Olivia said. “Being able to see all the incredible projects up close was really cool. Mariah and I have a list of things we want to do back home!”

Mariah received a national gold award and earned a fifth-place finish in nationals for her 2,000 minute reading challenge she hosted with Jonesburg and Montgomery City and Jonesburg elementary schools.
Cohen earned a national gold award for his $10 Meals Challenge project. He finished third in nationals.

“My favorite part of the entire trip was presenting my project to the national judges,” said Cohen, who will be a freshman at MCHS this fall. “I really liked the $10 meal challenge and I think it is important for people to know and use budgeting skills. It was fun to talk to the judges about the cool things we do in Montgomery. They liked it! The showcase allowed me to tell so many people how they could do this project in their own school. That was a neat experience to meet people from across the nation.”

Anna, who will be in eighth grade at MCMS, finished fourth in nationals for her repurposed crib sheets. Alyssa and Aurora, both incoming eighth-grade students, received gold for their food prototype project in the food innovations category. Brady, who will be in seventh grade, was awarded gold for his Pink Out dodgeball project between the students and staff.
Alaina and Lydia got their bronze award for their preschool workshop in the Focus on Children category.

All of the students plus the three chaperones – Beth Beattie, Audra Heimer and Madelyn Woods – did some sightseeing in Seattle. They visited the Space Needle, went to Alki Beach and attended a Seattle Mariners baseball game.

“We were just enjoying the city and everything and having a good time,” Brady said.

Beth Beattie said the students enjoyed going to the Space Needle, which is 25 feet shorter than the Gateway Arch.

“When we went up to the Space Needle, we got really lucky,” she said. “We were able to be there as it was still day and then we watched it turn into night. It was almost like the city turned on. You watch all of these twinkles come across. The sunset from the Space Needle was really awesome. The Space Needle had a clear bottom floor that you can see down below and there were gorgeous views from the outside.”

Beth Beattie said she was thrilled to see the students go to a conference that was attended by many people around the country.

“As part of the conference, one of the things that they get to do is they trade pins,” she said. “So they have Missouri pins and they trade them with all of these other people. It was so funny to watch them trading pins. Brady Falloon and Alaina Spurgeon were all about meeting everybody they could from every single one of the different places that was there, so that was awesome.”