Wayland High School students were among the more than 300 students from Allegan and Barry counties who attended the fourth annual Allegan-Barry Youth Summit Wednesday, March 29, at Gun Lake Community Church.

The Allegan County Pro Youth Team is a youth board made up of delegates from schools in Allegan County. Schools represented are Allegan, Fennville, Martin, Otsego, Plainwell, Saugatuck, and Wayland High Schools. This year the students had the opportunity to partner with schools from Barry County Youth Leadership Summit to plan this amazing event.

The theme this year was “Tidal Wave,” during the summit where students attended breakout sessions and heard a keynote speaker; students were energized with empowering messages reinforcing the belief that they can make a positive impact by being their best self; inspiring them to make their own wave.

The Pro Youth Team strives to enhance the voice of youth who don’t use alcohol or other drugs, and encourage peers to be confident in that choice. While there are only a few members of each school who can be delegates, here at Wayland the PYT students bring back their information to the Wahoos (making a larger Pro Youth Team at the local school, just with a fun name).

he Wayland Wahoos are student leaders who are interested in changing the negatives into positives in our school through purposeful actions creating positive reactions. Their focus is not solely on being above the influence, they see that as one element of being an effective leader in our school.

Anyone can join The Wahoos at any time during the school year. Meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month at 7 a.m. in Andrea Brown’s room.

PHOTO: (back row, from left) Abigail Tuinstra, Maddie Button, Connor Henney, Ben Barnes, Kayd Hulst, Caleb Wolfe, Dillon Kelly, Cami Huyck, Makaila Huffman, (middle row) Evan Cater, Maddy Stokfisz, Eli Veldman, Chloe Coughlin, Grace Dollarhide, Lilly Bolliger, Noelle Oman, Brennan Grimes, (seated) Ashlee Kidder, Abbie Hasse, Alyssa Medemar, Camber Barko, Ricky Alvarado-Castro, and Kayley Bodenberg. (Photo courtesy of Laurie Zywiczynski)