Three Collins Career Center students picked to represent Lawrence County at the Ohio Skills USA state competition in March took first place for their outstanding presentation.

Monday, July 24, 2000

Three Collins Career Center students picked to represent Lawrence County at the Ohio Skills USA state competition in March took first place for their outstanding presentation.

Then, when they went on to represent Ohio at the national competition in Kansas City, Mo., June 25 through July 1, they walked away as second place winners.

But the awards didn’t matter as much as knowing they greatly helped a community through their project – donations for the victims of last year’s Hurricane Floyd, which hit North Carolina hard, they said.

"The fact that we helped all of those families and all the feedback we got from the people of North Carolina made it all the more worthwhile," skills winner Jeannie Freeman said.

Freeman, along with friends Jennifer Elswick and Beth Henry worked long and hard to raise over 9,000 personal care items for hurricane victims.

"We helped two counties (Snow Hill and Tarboro) and 150 families," Miss Freeman said.

At the national competition, they competed with approximately 4,000 students in 72 different trade, technical and leadership fields. They gave a nine-minute (Microsoft) Powerpoint presentation outlining their community service project before a panel of four judges, a timekeeper and a director.

All of the awards and recognition are dedicated to a friend whom they recently lost – the unfortunate victim of a fatal car crash in South Point.

"Everything that we’ve won, we dedicate to Stacey Carrico," Miss Henry said.

The thrill of traveling was quite an experience for the young ladies, who said they have rarely left their hometown.

"I must have wasted a whole role of film on the plane," Miss Freeman said.

There is no doubt from any of the young ladies that this has been their greatest achievement, Miss Henry added.

"We met people from everywhere – Mexico, Guam, you name it," she said. "Everywhere we went, we (proudly) flashed our gold."

But awards and medals are things only to be appreciated and not taken for granted, Miss Henry said.

"It matters more that we helped so many people," she said. "We’re definitely going to do this next year."

All three students are studying in the field of cosmetology and have different career plans.

"There’s so many opportunities in cosmetology," Miss Freeman said. "It’s a very good thing – you meet a lot of people who come to you for a change and it improves their self esteem."

Miss Henry plans to work as a beautician and attend classes at college. She has not yet picked a specific school. She has one last year at Collins to think about it.

"I would like to become either an interior decorator or a fashion designer," she said.

Miss Elswick said she has mixed plans about her future, which might involve educating others.

"I either want to open up my own salon, or teach kindergarten," Miss Elswick said.

Regardless of where their paths lead them, the young ladies all said that Collins Career Center has well prepared them for the working world.

"I’ve learned so much more about life in general at Collins," Miss Henry said. "When we graduate, we’ll have our careers waiting for us."