Club director Olivia Dudding with Youth of the Year AnnMarie Cannon
Each year, a particular member of the Boys & Girls Club is chosen to represent each specific club. This member chosen is deemed the Youth of the Year. To be chosen, the individual must be a good overall club member, a role model, and have good grades and attendance in school. Generally, the chosen individual is a junior or senior in high school. However, for 2018, the member chosen was sophomore AnnMarie Cannon.
The Youth of the Year is chosen by the club director, who also confers with staff as to who had attended, participated and the like. Local club director Olivia Dudding stated that it was a fairly clear choice as to who to pick as Cannon is the president of the Keystone Group, which is a leadership group in the club. Dudding also stated that Cannon exemplifies the club mission, which is to reach for great things.
“She has been patient and has persevered through a rocky start with some of our leaderships groups and she has really made it what it is today,” Dudding said.
Cannon has organized and hosted teen nights that are open to the entire community, including events such as Wii Friday. These special events and nights for kids are important to Cannon due to seeing that there are many children and teens in the community that do not have much to look forward to.
“Even just the little things that we do here could be amazing to some kids and it really helps them,” Cannon stated.
Cannon’s favorite part of the Boys & Girls Club is making connections with the other members, may they be teens, the younger groups or the like. Cannon believes that it is great that they have a safe place to meet, talk and interact. Cannon’s goal after graduation is to attend a four-year college, hopefully full-ride. From there, she plans to help provide for her mom and dad, because they do so much for her.
To Cannon, winning Youth of the Year helped solidify that she can achieve great things and that a small town does not confine her. Dudding stated that the community should keep an eye on Cannon, because “she is going places.” Dudding stated that Cannon is funny, smart, aware of others and very service-oriented. As an adult, Dudding is excited to see what her next chapters are.