Title: Frankfort group ‘leads the way’ in FHA
Subtitle: Conference at Ripley attended by 2 students
Dateline: Not listed
Author: Steffi Ridgel (Correspondent)
Page: 12
Published: November 13, 1993
Publisher: Mineral Daily News Tribune (Keyser, WV)
Format: Newspaper (print)
Language: English
Holding Institution: West Virginia University Potomac State College
Library: Mary Shipper Library
Collection: Community History Archive
Digitization System: Advantage Archives
Accessed: January 28, 2026
Format: Digitized Newspaper Image
This article reports that I was selected alongside another Frankfort High School student to attend the West Virginia FHA/HERO Lakeside Leadership Conference in Ripley with our advisor. It highlights my participation in statewide leadership activities and quotes me reflecting on the keynote speaker’s ability to engage students, marking an early public record of my involvement in youth leadership development.
News-Tribune Photo by Steffi Ridgel
Recollections
January 28, 2026
This was an interesting conference. I was the Future Homemakers of America (FHA) class treasurer at my high school and the co-president of my home-economics class. I had just been to 4-H camp over the summer, which was the first time I had been away from family on my own among strangers, except that my sister was also there. This time, I was out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of other kids, staying in many gender-segregated cabins.
FHA later changed to Home Economics Related Occupations (HERO) to focus on careers, and later became Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). FCCLA is part of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) education.
The FHA primarily consisted of female students. Being one of the few (I believe five) male students among 540, it was quite an experience. Everyone wanted to talk with me as I walked around. I quickly learned that representatives were supposed to bring stickers to swap, but I didn’t have any. However, I ended up winning an award for collecting the most stickers. I was called up on the stage, and there was a ton of cheering and screaming. There was a large cabin for meetings and dances, and I learned how to do the electric slide with everyone else.
This is also where I learned about how to hold my hand up to represent the state map. As everyone asked each other where they were from, we would hold up our hands in the shape of West Virginia and point to the general area where we lived. Part of the fun of this map is that your middle finger is prominently held up above the others, giving you the feeling that you are flipping someone the bird while using the cover of an educational tool.
(palm edition)
References
Read Full Text
Frankfort group ‘leads the way’ in FHA
Conference at Ripley attended by 2 students
By STEFFI RIDGEL
Correspondent
RIPLEY — The West Virginia FHA/HERO Lakeside Leadership Conference was held recently at Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley. The theme this year was “Leading the Way.”
Two Frankfort High School students, Michelle Peters and Lewis Moten, were chosen to attend along with their FHA advisor, Karol Bradshaw.
Over 540 students representing 57 chapters from around the state met for the event and heard keynote speaker Harvey Alston inform them on “How to be the best.” He recommended that the students try to be happy regardless of “what is happening in your life,” and that “One needs to find the positive in even the worst situations.” Alston encouraged the students to work hard on developing a positive attitude.
Students were told to remember the word “HAPPY” which would stand for “heart, attitude, people, pride and you. They were informed these words should bring to mind “self esteem, motivation, role models, a work ethic, visualization and goal-setting.
Peters particularly felt the message was a good one. “I loved the speaker,” she said. “He really reached out to students and spoke to us on our level.” She felt she personally gained “a whole lot of self esteem” from the conference.
Moten commented that he was impressed by the fact that “He got people from the crowd involved by bringing them up on the stage.”
Bradshaw noted that she saw an effect on the students and thought it would be “a positive effect for the future.” She said her students especially enjoyed “the FHA learning activities, bonfire, dance, movies and leadership development classes.”
At the end of the session, students were urged to go back to their schools and develop “peer power projects” and were encouraged to make a future “dream list for everything you have wanted to do, to be, or to have. Let your mind run and dream high!”
News-Tribune Photo by Steffi Ridgel
FHA / HERO representatives Michelle Peters, Karol Bradshaw, and Lewis Moten.
Bracketed words indicate best-guess transcriptions where the original newspaper text is partially illegible.
