Sumter EMC sponsors Lee County student at Youth Leadership Conference

AMERICUS — Anne Marie Harlow of Leesburg was sponsored by Sumter EMC to attend the Georgia Cooperative Council Youth Leadership Conference held at the FFA/FCCLA Center July 17-21.

At the conference, affectionately known as “Co-op Camp,” Harlow joined with nearly 40 other young leaders from Georgia and Virginia for a week of engaging leadership and learning sessions taught through interactive sessions and games as well as fun outdoor activities.

The event allowed the students to grow in community leadership, problem-solving, relationship building, and communication in a fun and relaxed environment. This year, the conference also included students sponsored by the Virginia Cooperative Council, highlighting the impact of cooperatives on communities, what they do, and how youth can be a part of them.

Members of the Georgia Cooperative Council, including Sumter EMC, sponsor the conference to provide a unique way for students to learn about what cooperatives do and why they are vital in their communities. Students not only learned about the different types of co-ops and their impact, but they also learned more about themselves and what it takes to be a leader.

Campers learned new leadership skills and put them into practice while teaming with peers and new friends. Interactive workshops for the teen participants helped them learn how to be better leaders through a personality profile session to understand how to better work with others and another session that gave the teens tips and tricks on how to enter and leave conversations in social situations more easily.

Throughout the week, students participated in encounter sessions with representatives from the Farm Credit Associations, Georgia EMC, Go Energy Credit Union, Pineland Telephone Cooperative and Adam Schwartz of The Cooperative Way. The presenters emphasized and gave examples of how their organization incorporates the Seven Cooperative Principles that all cooperative businesses follow: voluntary and open membership, democratic membership control, members’ economic participation, autonomy and independence, education and training for members, cooperation between co-ops, and concern for local communities.

“It is so important to support and encourage leadership growth for the youths of our communities,” Tonya Jones, the community relations manager at Sumter EMC, said. “This weeklong conference brings the seven cooperative principles to life for these teenagers while fostering leadership and soft skills in a fun environment.”

In addition to activities onsite at the Georgia FFA/FCCLA Center, the group also went on a field trip to two cooperatives, Walton EMC and Godfrey Dairy, to see first-hand what they had been learning. And while leading and learning took place throughout the week, fun and games were also an essential part of camp. A challenging high-ropes course, mud course, and engaging team-building activities brought students together and helped them build meaningful friendships that made the goodbyes at the end of the week so hard.

The Georgia Cooperative Council is a statewide, nonprofit cooperative association whose membership comprises financial, electric, telephone, marketing and service cooperatives. The objective of the council is to promote and encourage all types of cooperative associations in the state and to educate the public about the cooperative way of business.

Special Photo: Sumter EMC