South Shore Foundation is now the major sponsor of Marion County Youth Leadership Team. After awarding a $3,500 grant to the leadership team in January, South Shore Foundation will lend its name to the youth leadership training effort undertaken by Entergy, the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service in Marion County, and area schools.

The youth leadership team, now in its first year, consists of ninth-grade students, usually seven from each of three Marion County schools, Bruno-Pyatt, Flippin, and Yellville-Summit. Students attend monthly sessions about goal setting and decision making skills, learn about civic responsibility, including a visit to the state Capitol, learn about business, careers, job interviews and the real world, and complete a personality assessment workshop and ExCel Ropes Course. As a group, they create projects that will benefit the community.

Dr. Steven Sanders, South Shore Foundation's president, invited the team to have one session at NATCO to learn about telecommunications technology. South Shore Foundation trustees will honor participants at the end of the year's program by presenting certificates of completion.

Others assisting the program next year will be UA Cooperative Extension specialists Mike Klumpp (communications), Dr. Joe Waldrum (leadership development) and Heber Springs Economic Developer Bill Inman (business management), local public officials, and Arkansas State University - Mountain Home.

Advisory committee members are: Steve Hobbs and Renee Myers, cochairs; Janie Purdom, treasurer; school personnel Kary Duffy and Joyce Boggan of Yellville-Summit; Vicki Stokes and Ricky Walker of Bruno-Pyatt; Dr. John Carey, Cathy Long, Dale Query, and Treva Phillips of Flippin; Terry Davis, county Extension agent; Mike Ragland of Entergy; attorney Sam Pasthings; Yellville Mayor Janell Kirkwood; and Suzan McKracken, president of Marion County Adult Leadership Team.

For more information about the youth leadership team, contact Renee Myers, county Extension agent - family and consumer science, (870) 449-6349. To apply for a South Shore Foundation grant or obtain more information about the foundation, contact Deanna Sullivan at (870) 453-3333.

South Shore Foundation is the charitable foundation of the Northern Arkansas Telephone Company, a family owned, independent telephone company located at 301 E. Main St., Flippin, AR 72634, serving a 658 square-mile area in Marion and Boone Counties.

South Shore Foundation Sponsors Youth Leadership Team

Members of the South Shore - Marion County Youth Leadership Team are shown with their chairman Steve Hobbs (back, left) and a South Shore trustee, Jodie Jeffrey-Sanders (back, right): (back, from left) Joshua, Geric, Terra, John, and Katie, from Yellville-Summit; (middle, from left) Amanda, Noah, Jeff, Laura, and Andrew, from Bruno-Pyatt School; and (front, from left) Ashley, Amy, Amanda, Brookee, Ashley, and Wendie from Flippin. Team members not pictured are Mary Beth and Valerie, of Bruno-Pyatt School, and Jo Jo of Yellville-Summit School.