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March 28, 2024 10:50 am
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Teaching Teens To Cope With Modern Challenges

By MAGGIE MCMURRAY

Moapa Valley Progress

In an object lesson activity meant to teach how to handle stress, local teens pass blindfolded volunteers from hand to hand down a row of peers during a LDS Logandale Stake Youth Conference held on Monday. PHOTO BY MAGGIE MCMURRAY/Moapa Valley Progress.

Over 250 youth, plus their adult leaders, gathered early on Monday morning at the Clark County Fairgrounds in a youth conference aimed at helping them tackle the challenges faced in every day life. Although the weather was cloudy and cool, and it was a holiday from school, nothing dampened the enthusiasm the youth showed for the activities that were planned.
Organized by the LDS Logandale Stake, kids ages 14-18 were divided into groups and rotated through six stations. Each station gave a special presentation on a topic aimed at helping kids succeed both now and in the future.

President Willie Frehner, of the Logandale Stake Presidency, explained why the conference was organized. “It was designed to help our youth develop different skills that they need to succeed in life: from social skills with peers to spiritual skills. It’s time we can spend learning while still having a lot of fun together.”

The six station topics were intellectual, social, physical, spiritual, emotional, and stress. Local guest speakers prepared a one hour presentation on each topic, which they taught to each group of kids in turn. Several stations had physical activities and object lessons that supported what was being taught, much to the delight of the kids.

The Intellectual station was taught by Erika Whitmore with the help of Kay Barlow. Kids were taught time management tips and how to schedule the things they really want to accomplish so that they can meet goals with schoolwork and other endeavors.

Barlow told the kids that she had actually timed several routine daily activities. She delighted her groups as she shared all the funny things she had timed. She found that it takes under a minute to make a bed, under a minute to clean a bathroom, and so forth. She emphasized the fact that there is a way to find great uses for even small amounts of time that would normally be wasted.

Derek Campbell taught the class on managing stress. He told kids, no matter what stress they faced, to always remember that there were people who loved them that wanted them to succeed.
Campbell led an activity where the kids were blindfolded and had to make their way through a maze while people shouted conflicting directions at them. When the kids were given a set of headphones so they could only hear the correct directions they made it through the maze much more quickly.
Campbell explained that their parents are often the ones giving them the correct directions. Succumbing to peer pressure would sometimes lead to making wrong turns in life.

Suzy Bennett was the presenter at the Social station. The emphasis at her station was for the kids to get to know one another better.
“See people not as they are, but as they can become,” Bennet instructed.
She emphasized a quote from Will Rogers saying, “I never met a man I didn’t like.”
The station incorporated activities that helped the youth find positive traits in fellow group members.

Next, kids moved on to the emotional station taught by Geniel Ozaki and Cymoni Cooper. Ozaki led off having the kids throw a tennis ball in a pattern. Once they had done it, she had them do it faster. Then she introduced more balls and then more balls until the groups could no longer keep up with it.
She then likened this lesson to their lives. With just one ball kids were bored and things were quiet. But when more balls were introduced, things were much more fun and exciting. But too many balls resulted in becoming stressed and overwhelmed.

The Physical station was taught by Casey Davis. He taught the importance of health, exercise and the power of your mind. The key to handling big tasks is to break them into smaller tasks that they can accomplish more easily, Davis said.

The spiritual station was taught by Wendy Mulcock. She taught that spiritual strength can make you a different person and helps you to be able to handle all the other aspects of your life.

A barbeque lunch was provided halfway through, prepared by JD Cornwall.
Feedback from the kids was positive. “It’s been great,” said teen participant Marina Mortensen. “It’s a little cold, but it has definitely been worth getting up early on a vacation day for.”

Stake Young Women’s President Alisha Cooper was pleased with the conference. “This experience has been great,” she said. “We are so grateful to all our presenters and to JD Cornwall for the wonderful lunch. Most of all we’re grateful for the kids who were willing to give up their holiday to be here and participate. We hope this helps them with the daily stresses they have to face.”

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