BARB BARRETT/The Luminary Six Muncy FBLA members will be going to nationals in June to compete. Breanna King and Rory Oden (center) took first place in state finals with their Partnership with Business team presentation. The two freshmen are with Janessa Mitterling, owner of State Farm Insurance in Muncy (far left) and their advisor, Heather Zimmerman (far right).

MUNCY – “Doing Good in the Neighborhood” and that is just what Muncy High School FBLA students did in their quest to place in the state finals. But not without the help of a neighboring sponsor, State Farm Insurance in Muncy. Owner and director, Janessa Mitterling collaborated with the students during the school year to do a variety of community service projects according to Heather Zimmerman, FBLA advisor and business education teacher at Muncy Jr/Sr High School.

“Mitterling has worked with our students to teach them about insurance, risk management and being an entrepreneur. From this experience, some of the officers and members wrote reports and presented them at the FBLA state conference in Hershey last month.

Breanna King and Rory Oden both won first place in the Partnership with Business team division. Using a power point presentation with photos the girls utilized goal setting, media marketing, agendas and meetings and community impact to maximize their chapter involvement and learning experience with business leadership.

The Muncy FBLA group implemented job shadowing, increased publicity with door hangers, flyers, and handouts and even made tee-shirts to wear. They established committees, contacted churches and attended MPBA meetings. They planted flowers downtown, pulled weeds, raked leaves, and participated in Trunk or Treat. They held two community service days and followed up with a survey for feedback on their volunteer experiences.

Zimmerman said 71 percent of the chapter participated which was about 55 members. 67 percent said they learned how to work with various businesses in their community. “It gave us a real connection with business and community,” said King who is a freshman and hopes to be a lawyer someday. She also will be heading to nationals on June 28 in Baltimore. There are six students going and Oden, also a freshman, said they are working towards financial assistance. “We will be competing among 10,000 others,” she said.

King will present her speech “Devoting Yourself to Home, Business and Community.” She won second place for this at state competition with the division “Intro to Public Speaking” on April 13. “It made the top four in the preliminary round,” she said about her speech.

Mitterling of State Farm said, “I am proud of these guys. They worked really, really hard. It was a pleasure to work with them. We did a lot.”

“We loved working with Mrs. Mitterling,” Oden replied.

Zimmerman said she was thoroughly impressed overall with the group. “They really reached out for numerous activities. Their enthusiasm sparked us, and helped us grow.” She added that they displayed outstanding work ethic and organizational skills.

“FBLA has done a lot for us,” Oden said. King acknowledged the same, and said she hopes to use her experiences on college applications. “It helped me build leadership skills and add confidence.”

Other Muncy FBLA students who placed in state finals are Emma Hogan, 3rd for Intro Business Communications; Sacha Alvarez, Tanner Gold and Grady Oden, 4th for American Enterprise Project team; Nathan Paisley, Bella Rymsza & Lexie Jazquez-Armenta, 8th for Community Service project team; Rebecca Dgien, 7th for Insurance & Risk Management; and Dakota Kerstetter, 7th in Accounting II.