Before my experience in the Mason G. Smoak Youth Leadership Highlands Program, my answer would be either "not much of anything" or "we have a bowling alley." Going into the program, I really didn't know what to expect, but I think that was part of the fun. Every day was something completely new and totally different, which really opened my eyes as to how diverse our county is. Not only did we visit the stereotypes of our area, such as the citrus industry and agriculture, but

Government day and many more. Every outing we did was tied into a leadership skill that we were suppose to take out of what we learned overall that day. The most impactful and favorite outing of mine was Tourism day. My favorite stop on tourism day was Maxwell’s packing house. Mr. Maxwell had many leadership skills and qualities that we were learning. He told us how his struggles and trials help him be as successful as he is today. Mr. Maxwell also told us how his core value

As always, the day started early on a Wednesday morning. We pull up to the Sebring International Raceway, and a heavy fog hung over the track. We stopped briefly, the gates opened, and we drove across the track onto the infield. Through the fog we could see multiple trailers full of Indy Series race cars. Crew members are walking around carrying various tools and parts, and upon leaving the bus we were standing in front of the A.J. Foyt Racing, Indy team trailer. We listened

Over the past year in the Mason G Smoak Leadership group I’ve learned that even in such a small county, we have so much to do just helping out the community. My favorite stop was when we went to the adult day center. I was able to see that even though they can’t do much with their lives, there are people who have dedicated their time to help these people and that is very heartwarming for me. My cousin, Tyler, is currently in my high school and I personally take time out of my

Going into the YLH program, I did not have an idea of what exactly we would be doing or what would come out of it. All I knew was that I would be making a bunch of new friends and doing good for our community, something I was definitely in for. I was excited to learn early on that we would be working together as a team, rather than doing things separately. From our very first activity together, the retreat, I knew that this would be a year to remember. Right off the bat we we

At six a.m. on Sunday morning our Youth Leadership Highlands group gathered at the South Sebring Publix to begin our grocery store race for the Heartland Food Bank. Myself and the other students had spent time raising money for sponsorships to pay for the groceries we were going to collect. We got with our groups and met our announcer Mike Rider who told us the rules. We attached the sponsors names to the sides of the cart. We got four minutes to walk and gather nine of every

The Grocery Race was the most stressful, yet exciting race I have ever done. Never in a million years did I think I was going to wake up at 5:45 a.m. to go grocery shopping. We got the opportunity to race down the aisles of Publix to donate food to the Heartland Food Bank. We were given lists and were required to grab 9 of each item. The hard part was that we had to do this while refraining from running and sticking with our 4 teammates. Mr. Mike Rider was our coordinator and