LIMA, OH (WLIO) - Allen Lima Leadership took time Thursday evening to recognize the growth and accomplishments of their class of 2023.
The program organizers presented 35 graduates with certificates for their hard work in completing the class. Throughout the ten-month course, participants step out of their comfort zone, develop team-building, networking, and problem-solving skills, and learn in-depth about the agencies that make our community work.
The graduation celebration is also a great way for the newest class to see for themselves the kind of experiences and results they can expect.
"We have a historically great program, it's one of the best in the state of Ohio. They're going to get a little snippet, they already know that there's great classes and they stand on the shoulders that came before them, but they really are going to see it upfront and close tonight with the impact projects," said Matt Childers, the executive director of Allen Lima Leadership.
The ceremony also honored the best two impact projects from the class, initiatives designed in teams to make a positive change in the community.
"We wanted to focus on the high school students of Allen County and help them become informed, educate them to make financially sound decisions for them to become financially sound after high school and beyond," explained Dave Compton, whose group, Financially Sound, worked on creating educational materials to teach financial literacy concepts like investment and budgeting.
"For our community project, we focused on the ACCESS Center, which is coming to form at the Allen County Juvenile Court. What we aim to do to assist the ACCESS Center was to provide kind of like a one-stop-shop informational backpack, so like a survival backpack that has information from community resources and agencies," said Emmanuel Curtis from the team Project SAIL.
This year's ALL alumni award was presented to Gary Freuh from the class of '95.
