Leadership Belton class graduates

Thursday, 28 June 2012 by Matthew Girard

Det. Larry Berg of the Belton Police Department speaks about his group’s project during the Leadership Belton Class of 2012 graduation ceremony last Thursday.The Belton Area Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Program continues to make a positive impact in the community.

Last Thursday, the Leadership Belton Class of 2012 was recognized for completing the nine-month program during a special graduation ceremony held at the Harris Community Center.

This year's class featured 11 residents, who were split into two teams and participated in two projects to better the community in some way.

Outgoing Leadership Belton Chair and 2008 graduate Sandra Russell said both projects were going to be beneficial to the community.

"They had great projects that they worked on, the fundraising was wonderful and there wasn't a glitch with either of them," Russell said.

One of the projects (whose members consisted of Luke Potts, Keith Leija, Jennifer Weir, Jerry McGuire, Lewis Simms and Pat Watson) was for the addition of "Doggie Waste Stations" located along the city's popular Hike & Bike trails.

The group's goal was using a combination of pet waste collection programs, pet awareness and education, signs and pet waste disposal techniques for pet droppings to make sure the parks and trails are clean.

The second group's project (whose members included Larry Berg, Matt McKinney, Lauren Gommert, Nelson Hutchinson and Sarah Robeson) was a "Family Transition Assistance Package."

The group's project was to assist in the pilot program for the Central Texas Family Violence Task Force by providing Family Transition Assistance bags to the Family Violence Unit.

The bags include items such as a small sewing kit, toiletries, crayons and coloring books, and other items to enable victims to more comfortably deal with the police process and or transitioning that occur with family violence cases.

The bags contain enough items to fill and re-fill all bags for continual use over a 12-month period.

McKinney said helping those in need was fulfilling.

"It was an honor for our group to take that project on and assist in any way we could," McKinney said. "By providing the bags and the necessities that are in the bag, it was a way that we really could help the community."

"If we can take all of those people that graduated from this Leadership Belton class and get them into some type of leadership role in the community, then our community is going to take off," Russell said.

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