Leaders of the future attend HOBY

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

By PATTY RICE GROTH
Inquirer Reporter
prgroth@galioninquirer.com

Participants in the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership program are nominated by teachers and selected by school counselors as representing some of the “cream of the crop,” so to speak, of the school.

Galion High School students Kyle Karnes and Caroline Palmer were selected to participate in the 2009 HOBY conference with almost 200 of their peers from around the state. Both will be juniors at GHS when school resumes in the next few weeks, and they will have stories to tell about their experiences on the campus of Ohio Northern University in Ada.

Young people attending the conference lived in two dorms on the campus, forming into groups with clever names such as the “Chicklets” or the “Trail Mix Bunch.” Each group came up with signs and chants to promote their team at general gatherings. Participants stay busy from early morning until as late as midnight during the three-day event. In addition to attending seminars, participants took on volunteer service projects in and around Ada.

An active member of the teen board of Galion Public Library, Palmer volunteered to work shelving children’s books at the local library. Karnes got involved in a car wash food drive to help restock the local food pantry. Other projects included making fleece blankets to donate to a shelter, and doing a “gorilla clean-up” at the home of a person in need. Karnes describes a gorilla clean-up as doing anything and everything that needed doing.

What did they bring home besides fun memories? Karnes says he learned it is possible to keep an open mind while holding on to one’s values and respecting the beliefs of another. Palmer says she gained a new sense of how much teens can do as a group.

Throughout the conference, participants worked on projects to earn money to be donated to a worthy cause to be chosen by the delegates. Palmer and Karnes both laugh at the idea of 200 teens in a room together trying to choose which charities to support.

In the end, a unanimous decision was made to donate all the funds to a HOBY participant from the Toledo area who builds greenhouses which are donated to help people raise their own food.

Galion students participating in a regional Ohio HOBY conference are sponsored by the Galion Kiwanis Club, which views it as an investment in the future of this community and country.