Engadine’s
Girls’ Conference Program 2000
By Julie Freeman
“Don’t Hold on to the Past, Open your Horizon”
A
perfect theme for the millennium year, girls’ conference held in Engadine,
which was another large success! Up to sixty students, grades seven through
twelve, along with approximately sixty-five mothers and women from the community
attended the conference held at the Engadine School May 10. This is the third
girls’ conference in Engadine, the first being held May 23, 1991.
Special speakers spoke about their careers and how their jobs came to be, along with challenges, obstacles, stress, but most of all a lot of fun, along the way.
They talked to girls on, “How I can be
Successful”, “Top Values”, “Finding a Career” and “Self-Esteem”.
Rae Marie Klobucher,
Girls
Conference Coordinator for the past two years and Life Skills Teacher
at Engadine High School, along with Alexa King, High School
Junior, welcomed everyone to this year’s conference. Sarah Whitney, High
School Senior, gave the introduction of the keynote speaker.
Keynote speaker at this year’s girl’s
conference was Dr. Judith Bailey who is President of Northern Michigan
University in Marquette. She explained, “I was looking at your program itinerary
and began pondering what I could say to you that would add to your theme,
‘Open Your Horizons’. Then, one day as I was button-pushing my radio to find
a particular station I just happened to hear a song with lyrics that struck me.
I thought ‘That’s it. That’s what I would like to share at the Engadine
Girls Conference.” She continued to say, “The song I heard that day is
called ‘Dance’, and is sung by Lee Ann Womack. What caught my attention was
the last line of the chorus, when Ms. Womack sings: And
when you get the chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance. I
hope you dance.” Bailey explained, “As I’ve grown older, I’ve
changed how I define a successful person. At one time in my life, I may have
said that a successful person was one who made so much money per year or had a
fancy title. But now I know that a truly successful person is the one who leaves
this world with as few ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys’ as possible.” At the
conclusion Judith’s speech she added, “Overcoming, conquering, turning
lemons into lemonade and learning what to accept and what not to
accept—that’s
what the song means when it says, ‘When you get the chance to sit
it out or dance, I hope you dance’. You can sit back and accept everything
life hands you or you can ask it to dance.”
After Dr. Judith Bailey’s influencing
speech, Rosie Prater, the 1996 recipient of the woman of the year award,
gave
the presentation of the 2000 “Woman of the Year”. Rosie told about the wonderful reasons
why this person was selected as woman of the year and nearing the end of her
speech many knew whom she was talking about, it was Leatha
LeGault of Engadine. Mrs. LeGault is very active with the school, community and church.
She has touched many lives, young and old.
The group then broke up into three small discussion groups. Which rotated every half-hour letting everyone a chance to be with the special speakers, who also graduated from the Engadine Consolidated School. Ann (Nelson) Sherman, graduated in 1981 and is now Industrial Organizational Psychologist for TI Automotive Systems. Diane (Cobe) Bricco, graduated in 1986 and is now the Process Control System Engineer at MEAD and Doris (Clark) Lee, graduated in 1968 and is now a Teacher and Counselor at Kingford Middle school.
Dinner consisting of baked chicken,
rolls, salad bar, cheesecake and brownies was served in the cafeteria. Prizes
donated by local business, organizations and individuals were awarded at the
conclusion of the program.
In addition to the above donations, a grant from the EUP Career
Prep helped fund this program.
The Girls’ Conference Committee received a long stem red rose from Mrs.
Klobucher as a special appreciation for all the help that they contributed.
They were: Sarah Whitney, Brandy Caverly, Jennifer Price, Alexa King,
Jonel Hoogterp, Nicole Robinson, Tiffany Adams, Brandy VanHise, Andrea Stachler,
April Houghton, JoAnn Klobucher, Kayla Houghton, Ashley King, Brandy Butkovich
and Ellen Wagner.
Special appreciation goes to the Engadine Administration, School Board and Staff for their cooperation and support for this year’s Girls’ Conference also to the prize and donation committee Terry Sadler, Violet Schroeder and Mary Formolo.
