This post has been a long time coming!
Deputy Director Sam Henley is a member of the 26th class of Leadership Camden County! Former Director Ron Gentry nominated Sam so she could begin building a network here in Camden County and begin learning about our county through the eyes of the organizations, agencies, and businesses who serve our area!
Leadership Camden County – Class 26
Active Leadership Session and Graduation
Tuesday, May 25th, 2021
8:00AM – Meet at Camdenton Area Chamber of Commerce –739 W. US Hwy 54, Camdenton Final Exam – will be starting sharply at 8am
8:40AM – Active Leadership Assignments – Drive to Volunteer Service Location – be there by 9:00 a.m.
9:00AM – Noon Volunteer Service Projects
12:30PM Lunch at Seven Springs Winery – 846 Winery Hills Est, Linn Creek, MO
1:15PM Active Leadership Reports – Share experiences
1:45PM – 3:30PM Program & Graduation
Dogwood Animal Shelter
Amber
Alycia
CADV
Paige
Kids Harbor
Eli
Jordan
Forget Me Not
Denise
Micki
Leslie
Shana
Beth
Share the Harvest
Jessica
Crystal
Ashley
Sam
Dan
Sam spent her volunteer time for the final class of LCC at Share the Harvest. She brought items from the intake/storage area to the front and hung them out for sale. With low prices, a clean store, and friendly volunteers running the thrift store, Share the Harvest brings much needed relief to everyone, especially low income families who need items such as clothing, books, shoes, housewares, furniture, and more! Sam brought her son to help as well. He is in his teens and provided much-needed muscle to help lift heavier furniture when they needed to place those items out on the sales floor.
After her time helping at Share the Harvest, Sam headed to lunch to relay her experience to the rest of the class and, in turn, hear about their experiences!
The show truly began when it was time for the “AWARDS” and graduation! The class was given a chance to cast their votes for titles and awards for their fellow classmates and by the end of the presentation, there was so much laughter, they could barely make it all the way through:
- Most likely to host the next reality show – Dan Mitzel
- Most likely to utilize their Leadership Camden County experience in a political career – Jeff Hooker
- The Leader of the Pack – Sam Henley
- Best Problem Solver – Alycia Conrad
- Best Teammate -the friend to all – Beth Hines
- Most likely to be included in the Guinness Book of World Records – Amber Smith (for most places traveled)
- Most likely to win an Oscar – Shana Aubuschon (best female lead in the “retelling of the history of the beautiful Lake of the Ozarks”)
The Leadership Team arranged hilarious little tokens/gifts representing the awards and presented them to the winners. By far, the funniest was Jeff’s, but we’ll leave that for him to tell!
The Leadership Team presented each of the graduates with a beautiful, framed certificate of completion to conclude the Leadership Camden County Class XXVI!
Thoughts from Sam (who has recently been promoted from Deputy Director to Director of Camden County, MO Emergency Management Agency!):
Through the fast pace of the last few months, I have had the opportunity to work with several of my fellow LCC XXVI classmates. I wanted to sit down and give you a good rundown and my thoughts on this experience, so here we go!
First, for the relatively small amount you pay to attend a Leadership Camden County class, you get to experience a WORLD of activities, food, local shopping, interact with other leaders from around our beautiful county, and MORE!
The scariest thing for me was zip-lining on the very first day. THAT particular activity was on my ANTI-Bucket List, but I got up the nerve through the encouragement of my fellow classmates and I DID IT! It was exhilarating! Granted, I don’t feel any particular need to do it again, but I now have that experience under my belt!
Next, it allowed me to interact with people I may never have crossed paths with on a daily basis. I’m as guilty as everyone else of getting into a daily grind and routine; eating at the same places, visiting the same places, etc. Several times we visited places I have never been and I have lived in Missouri since 2006! Despite what you hear in the media, there are good, kind-hearted people ALL around. They are the ones quietly working toward amazing goals like helping abused men, women, and children escape their abusers, helping their community grow and flourish by bringing new businesses and thus jobs into the county, working toward providing a safe and fun environment for families with a huge baseball/softball park, and the list goes on and on! I truly admire the men and women I was able to spend time with over the course of the nine-month class.
Finally, I witnessed the teachers and leaders who put their hearts and souls into the Leadership Camden County class to bring their ongoing dreams to fruition. They did ALL of the hard work finding community partners, arranging activities, scheduling classes, and being extremely flexible when working around the tremendous monkey wrench (AHEM, PANDEMIC) thrown at them which threatened to ruin their plans. They forged ahead, encouraging us when we may have lost hope, helping us when we were confused, and laughing with us through the absolutely comedic journey we took together. Thank you to Trish, KC, and the rest of the LCC Team for your efforts!
Would I do this again? Absolutely. Do I encourage everyone to attend LCC at least once? 100% YES! And if they ask me to come teach or help out, will I be there? In a HEARTBEAT! I LOVE this program and what it does for our community and its leaders!
Camden County, MO Emergency Management Agency 