PIA holds youth conference at high school

HAMBURG — Youth Conference is an annual event held to educate high school students about self-discovery, leadership and serving within their community.

In its 14-year tenure, the event, which was held at Wallkill Valley Regional High School this year, the event is a chance for kids from different high schools to meet one another and learn the essence of volunteering in their communities.

Over the years, it has snowballed from taking place in a few classrooms to filling an auditorium with teens.

Organized by Kathy Rathbone, from Pass It Along, this year's conference was a fun-filled, friend-making day of learning about projects that serve the local community and exploring the ways Pass It Along can help the student grow as an individual.

“Today's event is a beautiful representation of the passion and commitment of the young people of our community,” Rathbone said, “These young people have made their purpose in life serving others. Kit has become their philosophy and attitude, a way of life. We are so proud of these young people for coming together today with a burning desire to find out how they can make a difference.”

The conference drew 278 teens.

“One of our important messages of the conference is to get kids to be proud of the impact they have on their communities,” said H. Lorena Sergent, Pass It Along's marketing director.

The event is organized by our staff in conjunction with Tim Jackson, a volunteer and national motivational speaker, and approximately 40 students from the different area high schools. These students made up the planning committee that met once a week for the last four months at a space provided by ThorLabs, in Newton, to organize all the team building exercises and day activities. Adrianna Hickey, a senior at Newton High School, was part of that committee and has been involved with Pass It Along since she was a freshman.

“I love to be involved with my school so was eager to be on this committee,” she said.

Hickey, who also plays softball and does the stats for Newton's wrestling team said, “The most rewarding part of the conference is to see the interaction among the kids from different schools.” Hickey aspires to go to Drexel University next year and one day become a veterinarian.

Lenny Fontes, a junior at Sparta High School, was also part of the planning committee.

“The biggest challenges was all of the great ideas for the conference,” he said. “We had a great planning group with so many great ideas that it was hard to narrow them down.”

He agreed with Hickey that he thought the interactions between the students in attendance was great to see. Though not sure what he wants to do after high school, Fontes knows he will always enjoying volunteering in his community.

Connor Dick, also a junior at Sparta high said he most enjoyed the speakers.

“It's so interesting to hear other people's experiences and learn and grow from therm,” he said.k

Dick wants to be a Social Entrepreneur after college.

“I want to be the CEO but as a social entrepreneur you oversee raising money that all goes to an important cause,” he said.

“All three of these students and all of our planning committee have been huge ambassadors for Pass It Along and getting their schools involved,” Sergent said.

Tim Jackson was this year's featured guest speaker. Though he speaks all over the country, Sergent said the organization is fortunate he lives in the group's own backyard.

The teens also broke out into different “family groups” where on of the teens from the committee served as leader. Each family group stayed together and attended at least two workshops during the day.These included: Leadership by Tim Jackson & Your Future Self by Amy Arvary, Discovery Through Music by Diane Taylor, Founder of Pass It Along and Serving With Your Brain by Bob Jones, founder of Infinite Fire.

This annual conference is free of charge for the students to attend, and their schools provide the busing. It was possible this year thanks to sponsors: Atlantic Sports Health, Eastern Propane, Hudson Farm, Lakeland Bank, Newton Medical Center, NJ Cares, Selective Insurance, Sparta Athletic Club, Stop & Shop, Sutherland Packaging, Thorlabs and Walmart. In kind partners included: C3 Workplace, Dobbs Creative Group, Krogh’s Restaurant and Brew Pub, Lake Mohawk County Club, Mount Freedom Printing, The Fieldhouse, and Sparta One.

"I feel incredibly hopeful about our future because of this generation of young, caring people," Rathbone said.