By Roxy Ekberg
Republican Staff
Recently Wakefield FCCLA members Mayte Flores and Sawyer Brudigam traveled across the country to attend the National FCCLA event.
Wakefield High School FCCLA members Sawyer Brudigam and Mayte Flores earn silver at national competition.
Brudigam and Flores competed in event management at the 2024 National FCCLA Leadership Conference held in Seattle, Washington, last month. Their project was based on a winter coat drive community service project.
Over 8,000 student members and advisers attended the event, and the Trojan’s project competed against roughly 50 other projects before taking home silver.
The pair began their project in September, organizing the coat drive, collecting the donations, and distributing to Wakefield students in need. Competing at the district competition in January and the state competition in April, they took home championships each time and earned their place at nationals.
Brudigam said it was a fun, positive experience, and he enjoyed being in Seattle, attending the different sessions, and listening to keynote speaker Caleb Campbell, a motivational speaker from rural Texas.
The team also serve on the 2024-2025 Nebraska State Peer Officer team. They performed officer duties in addition to competing at nationals.
Brudigam said the biggest thing he and Flores enjoyed was networking with students from around the nation. National FCCLA has a tradition of pin trading, where students trade pins with each other as a way to meet people and break the ice.
According to Brudigam one of the things they enjoyed about the event was pintrading, as a way to encourage networking among the students at the event. Each participant was given 25 pins each, and together they tried to trade with students from all 50 states.
During their downtime, the group took a harbor tour of Seattle, visited Pikes Peak Market, the Space Needle, and went to a Seattle Mariners baseball game.
Michelle Galles, FCCLA sponsor and family and consumer science teacher, said the group wants to give a big thank you to the community members and businesses that helped donate funds to make the trip to Seattle possible, including Michael Foods, the Gardner Foundation, Wakefield Home and Closet, and White Farmhouse Realty.