2008 Woodie Awards
New year, new honors for SIFE
Patricia Bergquist
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After two dormant years, Students In Free Enterprise, or SIFE, has come back to life with new members. This year, Laura Nash, club president, and the other 14 members have been busy planning and doing projects with the support of their adviser, Maria McConnell, associate professor in the business division of LCCC.
SIFE gives students chances to use the classroom taught principles of the free enterprise system in hands-on real world experiences, according SIFE.org.
Some of the first things the club did, as a team was to develop written marketing plans for a few local businesses, said Candy Tollett, club secretary. Then they started working on a clothing drive, collecting new and gently used business style clothing to be given away. For this drive, the members had to find businesses that would allow a collection box to be placed within their premises. SIFE sent out about 150 flyers for the clothing drive, said Tollett.
In December, SIFE hosted a debate about a casino that was proposed to be built in the area. About 70 to 80 people showed up the event that Tollett said, "took an extreme amount of pre-planning."
"Many of the panel members changed sides prior to the debate," Tollett said, "It was an incredible education in what you mean when you have a hot topic. Some stepping out, some stepping back."
In March, SIFE taught little kids about big business in CC Mall. The kids raked in the quarters at SIFE's hotdog and lemonade sale, a fundraiser for future contests, one in Cleveland and possibly Kansas City.
Children from the LCCC day care center, ages four and five, were shown how to run a lemonade stand, according to Tollett. SIFE members divided the 18 young ones into groups and made sure each child had a chance to learn. In about an hour, the little entrepreneurs sold $16 worth of lemonade at a quarter a cup
On March 30, SIFE went Cleveland to compete in a regional event. The American Greetings SIFE Regional Competitions was held at the Crown Plaza Cleveland City Centre Hotel. The prize for first place was $1500 for team competitions. Some sponsors of the competition are offering $500 as first place for individual competitors. If the LCCC SIFE team wins this regional event, they will go on to compete in the national SIFE competitions that are held in Kansas City, MO, according to SIFE.org.
The speakers were chosen because of their public speaking experience, said Margaret Box,
"Mrs. McConnell has much confidence in us and says we will go all the way. We are all new in SIFE this year and so we have no experience, so we are riding on Mrs. McConnell's confidence to carry us through," said Margaret Box. This will be the SIFE team's sixth year competing, according to McConnell. She said the LCCC SIFE club won the regional competition four times and has been to the National SIFE competition in Kansas City. They placed as first runner-up once and second runner-up twice.
"I think we'll do fantastic. We have energetic teams and wonderful projects." McConnell said, "I'm confident in their ability."
Editor's note: SIFE claimed second place at the Regional Students In Free Enterprise Competition held in Cleveland, March 30. Check out LATE BREAKING NEWS FOR RELATED STORY.
