FBLA gives $10,000 to municipal pool

Odessa High School FBLA members observed first hand how winning the Lead2Feed Challenge for the third year in a row impacts the Odessa Community. Members celebrated their second-place award for the 2017 school year at a special assembly where they presented a check for $10,000 to Lindsy Starkel, president of the Odessa Friends of the Pool. This money, along with the $2,500 won by FBLA for their Toasty Tots project from STCU last December, will be used for two new heat pumps, lifeguard wages and training.

FBLA members were then invited to be guests of honor at the Odessa Fire Department's monthly meeting, where they were treated to a BBQ dinner and a demonstration of the MSA Evolution 6000+ Thermal Imaging Camera. By winning first place in the 2016 Lead2Feed Challenge, FBLA members selected the Odessa Fire Department as the recipient of $12,500 in prize money. The fire department used this money to purchase the thermal imaging camera. Fire Chief Don Strebeck showed students how the camera detects the temperature of any object in a room, gives a distance measurement, and color-codes the findings based on temperature. The camera is especially useful for a smoke-filled or very dark room where visibility is limited and firemen need to determine whether there is a person or animal in the space.

The Lead2Feed Challenge is sponsored by the Lift-A-Life-Foundation and challenges students across the nation to use their leadership skills to implement a service project to benefit their community. This school year one million students in 5,000 student organizations were involved in learning the Lead2Feed Leadership curriculum and implementing service projects.

Over the last three years, Odessa High School FBLA has participated in and won the Lead2Feed Challenge twice and placed second this year. This has allowed the Odessa chapter to give $60,000 to non-profit organizations of their choice and $35,000 in iPads and laptops to the Odessa School District.