Mount Vernon Boys & Girls Clubs Award Youth

Mount Vernon Boys & Girls Clubs Dinner with Friends: (Back row, L to R): Bobby Castro (LaVenture Staff of the Year), Zoie Saunders (Mount Vernon Youth of the Year), Johanna Gamboa (YOY runner-up, Spark Award for Leadership & Service), Joseph A. (STEM Award), Audrey Bouwens (Mount Vernon Staff of the Year)
(Front row, L to R): Franco G. (Sportsmanship Award), Jakelyn B. (Artist of the Year), Fernando H. (Boy of the Year), Alina A. (Girl of the Year)
Not Pictured: George W. (Academic All-Star), Willie Adams (Mount Baker Staff of the Year)

Beginning in the fall, members from each local Club started working with a staff mentor to prepare for Youth of the Year, a program that recognizes and seeks to celebrate those members who embrace & embody the characteristics of leadership and service, academic success, and healthy lifestyles. Staff mentors help each Club member with essay writing, as well as interviewing and public speaking skills, to showcase their achievements and development. Participants are presented with many opportunities to practice and make adjustments, including at a Youth of the Year Retreat at Lazy F Ranch in Ellensberg, WA. Youth are interviewed by a panel of selected community judges and present their speeches. Judges score their presentations based on metrics provided by Boys & Girls Clubs of America and select one candidate to be awarded and move forward in the program to County, State, Regional, and finally the National Event. Being named Youth of the Year is highest honor a Club member can achieve. Candidates can earn scholarship funds, and are presented with opportunities to meet and make connections with prominent, key individuals in their prospective fields.

Youth of the Year starts at the Club level with each Club's Dinner with Friends which were held this last November. Additionally, Dinner with Friends offers an opportunity for Club members to be awarded for their excellence in Sportsmanship, Art, Good Character, STEM, and Homework(Power Hour) and for Community members to be recognized for exceptional service. This year Concrete held their first Dinner with Friends event since opening their Clubs a year ago. Clubs in Burlington look forward to participating in the program for the first time next fall.

Selected Boys & Girls Clubs of Skagit County Club members are looking forward to speaking at the Youth of the Year dinner to be held on January 29th, 2020 at Eaglemont in Mount Vernon, where the county's Youth of the Year will be announced. For more information about the Youth of the Year program or to RSVP for the dinner in January, please visit www.skagitclubs.org.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Skagit County would like to thank everyone for coming out to support these youth.