Leadership conference created to point youths in right direction

About 80 area high school students gathered Monday at the Plaza Conference Center in Cape Girardeau to listen to Mike Campbell talk about how he killed his son.

Campbell's 6-year-old son, Michael, died in a car accident in 1994. Campbell, the driver, had been drinking.

Campbell shared his story at a session of the Team Spirit Leadership Training Conference, a program put on to encourage safe driving practices among teenagers. Students from nine high schools around the state attended the three-day conference, which closes today.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department's Safe Communities Program and the Missouri Department of Transportation Highway Safety Division sponsor the Team Spirit conference, which began in Cape Girardeau 11 years ago. Jefferson City also hosts an annual Team Spirit conference.

Creating 'action plans'

Sharee Galnore, coordinator of the Safe Communities Program, said students not only listen to motivational speakers like Campbell during the conference, but teams from each high school also create their own "action plan" to promote better drug and alcohol awareness in their schools. Action plans can range from inviting a speaker to school to talk about drugs and alcohol to handing out candy at prom to remind others not to drink and drive. Galnore said the conference equips the students with the knowledge to carry out their plans.

"We want them to come out of this better informed so they can go back and make a statement to their student body that isn't vague but instead has some very hard facts," she said.

The conference is partially run by high school and college student facilitators who have already been through the Team Spirit program. Jason Henke, who has attended conferences for nine years as a student, youth facilitator and now as a member of the National Guard's Counter Drug Task Force, said the conference is about both motivation and responsibility.

"We give them the idea that they do make a difference, and the decisions they make affect their futures," he said.

Henke said Team Spirit mostly focuses on high school sophomores and juniors because they can take what they learn to school with them the following year. However, some freshman and seniors attend the conference as well.

Tyler Holman, 16, of Jackson said he has had a great time at the conference. Schools are invited to attend Team Spirit on a three year rotation, but Holman plans to go back again next year as a youth facilitator. He said he has learned a lot about the importance of making wise choices.

"Driving a car is not a right but a responsibility," he said, "and we have to realize that other people are on the road, and their lives are in our hands, too."

wmcferron@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127