Beta Club members and chaperones were on their way to State Beta Club Convention early Wednesday morning. Students loaded their bags with the proper attire and goodies to assure that their stay would be memorable. The Beta Club arrived around noon on Wednesday at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield, Illinois just in time for the first general session to begin. Following the session, students traveled to various restaurants for lunch to hold them over until the Beta Club provided pizza for the member’s and chaperone’s supper. Between general sessions, students tested in academics and entered visual art into competitions to be judged.

The second general session began at eight o’clock Wednesday evening. The second session solely focuses on the campaigns of new candidates running for state offices. President, vice president and secretary candidates gave speeches followed by campaign skits brought to us by their schools. Voting was to be open after the second session and results announced Thursday morning. The event Beta members had been anxiously awaiting is here: the Beta Dance! The Beta Dance included students from all over the state of Illinois. The dance was winding down and fellow seniors were reminiscing on their past years at Beta Convention.

Breakfast at IHOP started off the last morning at convention for the early risers. Several students ordered delicious pancakes and savory bacon, then made their way back to the hotel to kick off the last general session. The following students were awarded in the visual arts category Dalton Smith in Recyclable Art and Austin Schuster in Woodworking. They both received a first place ribbon in their category. Congratulations to academic winners including Maddie Caudle 2nd place in Spanish, Joy Pendleton 2nd place in Creative Writing, Chasidy Greenwalt 3rd place in Agriscience, Caitlyn Dickey 3rd place in Math and Nate Barbee 3rd place in Speech. The following students will have the opportunity to attend National Beta Convention in June at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Congratulations to all winners on a job well done!