2007 National Program Award Winners
National Program Award Winners were recognized at the 2007 Conference in 3 areas of focus: Education, Leadership, and Action. There were three winners for each category.
LEADERSHIP
FIRST PLACE-KANSAS
Kansas FCE set out to promote the user of the Hearth Fire series and have them readily available for members. They also included training for those lessons. Each county was given a notebook containing all the Hearth Fire series that will be updated as new Hearth Fires become available. Members are encouraged to buy Hearth Fires from National but KAFCE makes them available at Area and State meetings. Members spent 1,151 hours teaching and learning 22 Hearth Fire lessons. More than 181,311 were reached through education, booths, displays, and other forms of media. Some members became comfortable enough to teach outside groups.
SECOND PLACE-WEST VIRGINIA
Mentoring, volunteering, citizenship and leadership are what America is all about. West Virginia gave a group of youth the chance to learn first hand about these characteristics through completing a service project. Sixty-seven youth personally touched the lives of 1,575 people. An average of 240 hours was volunteered and $28,593 was contributed toward the completion of this project. Youth enjoyed the FCL workshop presented and were able to replicate what they learned.
EDUCATION
FIRST PLACE-MISSOURI
The goal of Missouri's project was to demonstrate that Hearth Fire lessons can be used in imaginative and fun ways while learning about our community, state and country. They adapted the board game based on Hearth Fire #37, "Courting the Justice System", by incorporating questions about Missouri history and its' judicial system. Produced under the title "Show Me Justice", it was introduced at 2006 District Meetings. 25 copies were available at the State Meeting. These quickly sold out and 35 orders were taken. With grant money, 150 student editions and 80 adult editions were produced and distributed. A copy of Hearth Fire #37 is included with each copy of the game.
SECOND PLACE-COLORADO
Colorado's goals were to increase awareness of FCE through reading programs and community involvement, encouraging parents to read to their children starting at birth, and encourage children to love reading and choose it over television. 190 FCE members and 392 others were involved in reaching over 10,000 through reading programs and as many as 104,900 through media and community contacts. Colorado FCE believes it was a good year with all the projects relating to books and the individuals reached.
THIRD PLACE-NORTH DAKOTA
North Dakota focused on CHARACTER COUNTS! by contacting local daycare centers and offering to present programs. One FCE member trained others. One wrote a grant to help fund the project. Children were introduced to the FCE Friends and taught about caring and the other pillars of character. Each child was given a gift bag with a coloring page, crayons, cookies, a CHARACTER COUNTS! certificate and FCE brochures for parents. Each daycare center was given a cloth satchel with a set of FCE Friends, storybooks, certificate and FCE brochures.
ACTION
FIRST PLACE-MARYLAND
Maryland FCE chose "Books, the Other Channel" to emphasize the importance of reading and to inspire members to support this project. All member counties participated in this project. 175 members spent 750 hours disseminating information about the program, contacting prospective distributors, collecting and labeling books, and delivering books directly to families with children or to organizations and agencies. Maryland FCE has gained recognition with county agencies and organizations, including fair boards, social services, Head STart, pre-schools, child care facilities and crisis centers as well as families. FCE members in Maryland expect to continue this project.
SECOND Place-MISSOURI
Missouri FCE believes every FCE club should be mindful of how vital new members are to the outlook of FCE. Any organization not growing becomes stagnant and looses the vision of the organization. Missouri FCE set goals to increase new members by 2% (18) and for all members to be committed to increasing membership. Other goals include having a Membership Chairman in all 36 counties, having Spring and Fall District workshops to encourage everyone to participate in reaching new members and having membership representatives from all 36 counties at the Annual Conference. Missouri FCE gained 27 new members but felt they could improve their results by getting more clubs to participate in memberships drives, encouraging new member recruitment with awards and pins, encouraging new member plans at District meetings and creating a follow-up agenda with ideas for prospective members. Sounds like Missouri has big plans for the future.
THIRD PLACE-NORTH DAKOTA
This North Dakota group has previously distributed books to newborns but when their rural hospital quit delivering babies, they had to become creative to continue promoting literacy to young families. They looked for a book to instill values, teach a lesson or foster the love of reading in preschool children. They chose "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn. This is a story for any child who confronts a difficult situation and for the child within each of us who sometimes needs reassurance. A grant was obtained to purchase 50 books. The books were distributed by the Public Heath Nurse when children got their immunization for kindergarten. 200 people were reached in this project with an additional 3200 reached through media coverage.