BROKEN BOW – Angie Palmer’s Broken Bow FBLA chapter doesn’t know the meaning of the word “quit.”
While many students would choose to spend the first act of their summer vacation letting the sun melt away the past 9 months of work, Palmer’s FBLA crew has continued to hustle; they have not one, but three fundraisers planned before the last week in June, which coincidentally will be when the 14 members land in Atlanta for the FBLA National Conference.
Palmer estimates that by the end of that stretch, the chapter will have raised over $50,000, a number made all the more remarkable when considering that less than 10% of that came from non-fundraised support.
Despite it all, however, Palmer says her kids so far are a sliver shy of buying their $23,000 ticket to the national conference.
“We’re still $8,000 short of our goal, so we have quite a ways to go.”
While that may seem like quite a hill to climb in a little under a month, Palmer says that FBLA has at least one ace up its sleeve.
“One of our groups that will be competing at nationals, their national topic is requesting fundraising dollars. So the presentation they’ll be giving on the national stage, they’ve actually done it in the community.”
That group, and the 4 other presentation groups that makeup Broken Bow’s FBLA, have arranged a showcase of those invaluable skills by partnering with the Grocery Kart; the Burger Bash scheduled for Thursday at 4:30 p.m. will mark the 5th time the FBLA and local grocer have joined forces.
Palmer says that the experience for FBLA always propels the chapter toward both short and long-term goals.
“The fundraising experience itself is a learning tool in itself because the students have to put themselves out there. They’re making themselves vulnerable to the idea that somebody may say, ‘No.’ Then it becomes: how do we move forward? These are skills that you aren’t going to learn from a textbook.”
The event will feature members of Palmer’s FBLA serving burgers, chips, and drinks at the Grocery Kart until 7:30 on Thursday evening. Community members are encouraged to stop by and support the chapter’s historic trip to the national competition.
For those unable to attend Thursday’s fundraiser, the Broken Bow FBLA, true to form, won’t be slowing down; the group will take a Friday rest before opening up their garage sale this weekend.
