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Living Out Loud youth pool party today
A back-to-school pool party is being held by Living Out Loud from 9-11 tonight at the Walton Family Aquatic Center for all Vernon County high school students, as well as 2010 graduates. LOL is planning to have food, music and swimming for $1 admission.
And at 10:45 a drawing will be held for an Ipod Nano donated by Missouri Eagle. The winner must be present at the drawing and have been at the pool party continuously since the start of the event, Ranea Schulze, one of the adult supervisors of the event, said.
She said that Tammy Hendren, from the vo-tech school, Tim Holmes, Missouri Eagle, as well as Bill Flemming, who is providing the music, and other adult members of LOL are helping with the party.
Although there will be adult supervision for the pool party, tonight's event, like the two previous band concerts at Marmaduke Park, has been put together by the youth members of the LOL organization.
The goal of Living Out Loud is to provide drug and alcohol free activities for Vernon County high school students throughout the year, Schulze said.
The group also is planning to focus on activities teaching respect, addressing texting while driving, under-age drinking and a healthy lifestyle.
Schulze said that she and Kevin McKinley, Nevada High School athletic director were asked by the Vernon Youth Task Force to bring together a group of high school students to brainstorm possible ideas for activities that would be of interest of high school students and prevent a recurrence of last fall's "pasture party" that led to a large number of Nevada students being suspended temporarily from participating in extra-curricular activities.
"The focus is on those kids doing this," she said.
Following on the success of the informal student tailgate parties the last two years west of the football field, LOL is planning to host tailgate parties this fall before each of the home football games south of Lyon Stadium on the vacant lot at the intersection of Tucker and Allison streets.
They are also interested in having a powder puff football game this fall, perhaps in September.
Schulze said that they are looking for a community sponsor for that event.
In October they are planning to revive the drug-free volleyball tournament held the weekend before Red Ribbon Week and later in the month have some type of Halloween activity at Marmaduke Park to replace the Anti-Van Follies and the dance.
Schulze said there are also tentative plans to hold Fifth Quarter activities at the Franklin P. Norman Community Center for high school students after home football games, with activities like basketball, dodgeball, volleyball, capture the flag as well as a place to hang out.
"They are interested in getting back to some old-time activities," she said, adding that they might even consider water balloon fights.
Other activities under consideration for the upcoming year include a board game night, open gym on some Saturday nights, a dirty Santa party, on obstacle course in the high school gym similar to the Super Teens contest at the Vernon County Youth Fair and mud volleyball games.
They currently have 11 high school students on the committee, 10 from Nevada and one from Sheldon.
"We are looking for representatives from NEVC and Bronaugh," she said.
The Living Out Loud group is an off-shoot from the Vernon County Youth Task Force which has been meeting for several years with the goal of finding solutions to some of the problems facing local youth.
The new dental clinic is the result of their work.
Schulze said that Debra Workman, the new high school principal, has said that she wants to have some of the students on the LOL committee attend the Youth Task Force meetings.
"She thinks it's important for students to see how their input can influence what is done," Shulze said.
Living Out Loud
Students
Parker Richardson
Dillon Smith
Kyle Schmidt
Torie Arrington, Sheldon
Kirsten van der Schaaf
Jake Brasfield
Allie Irwin
Ethan Dade
Lindsey Lechman
Emmaly Ellis
Teryn Greer
Adults
Glenda Bridgewater
Tricia Bridgewater
Tammy Hendren
Ranea Schulze
Tim Holmes
Ryan Renwick
Kevin McKinley
Mark Mitchell
Tommy Geeding