So, every week we get 5-10 requests to sponsor charitable events, a team, 5k, or donations needed in the near future. If you know me at all you know the giving spirit here is one of my favorite things about HRBG, and getting to participate in the process is a dream.  Every week, Renee (our GM) and I have a meeting to go over the requests since there’s no way we can do everything. We both love the helping part and the fact that we can’t help everyone is really hard on us. Back to the story, I got a letter in the mail from Austin on March 26th. He explains how he is representing Arkansas in the National FCCLA (Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America) competition and he needs money to make it happen. The letter didn’t have a monetary amount in it, but it had an email address so I emailed him. He needed a good chunk of money. He had obviously brainstormed all the ways he knew to raise money and was working hard on those. He did graphic design work for his school, Mansfield’s baseball team and sold those shirts. He designed a fundraising shirt & sold those. He offered to do his presentation for everyone who would watch & asked for donations. All along we emailed, became social media buddies & I did my best to cheer him along. I had talked to Renee about Austin and giving her updates along the way too. When it got to the point where he had come as far as he could in his fundraising & was still lacking we knew we had to help him. Oh, and because of hotel/convention politicking, he also was informed about halfway through his efforts his budget to get to Washington had doubled. That must have been hard, and I felt so bad for him, but he never let it get him down and continued to pursue the opportunity wholeheartedly.

Austin is representing his hometown & school, Mansfield and the state of Arkansas. He’s a Fuel Up to Play 60 State Ambassador & a speed skater so it was a perfect fit to present on Sports Nutrition. He got 1st place in the district competition with an 81.67 score. Before going to the state competition he had a month to improve his presentation, and he worked on it in his EAST lab class with the help of his teacher. He says in the letter he sent me he showed up at state and made two quick realizations, everyone else was working in teams of 3 and he’s “just a freshman”. So Austin, the freshman working alone won state with a score of 96! Now in just a couple of weeks he’s heading to Washington D.C. to make his presentation & hopefully win the competition!

Here’s a video we made yesterday where Austin will get to tell you a little about his presentation & thank all the people who have helped him along the way. He has an awesome community, teachers, church & parents to support him.

We are rooting for you Austin! Way to represent Mansfield & Arkansas! We hope you wipe the floor with those other guys. 🙂

–C