Layson earns two gold medals at FCCLA national conference

Before any athletes earned a gold medal this summer, Anley Layson already had earned two of her own.

Layson, a recent graduate of John Hardin High School, was awarded two gold medals in July at the National Leadership Conference for the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America.

Layson completed several projects with No Kid Hungry National Outreach Project, and submitted a website and a display board outlining the work she did.

She is the first John Hardin student to reach the national level, FCCLA adviser Jo Million said.

“It’s good to see someone recognized for their hard work,” Million said.

Layson joined FCCLA her senior year and chose to work with the No Kid Hungry project from a list of possibilities.

“Because it’s about helping, so I was like, ‘I’ll go for it,’” she said.

She worked to raise awareness of the project and had 112 people sign a pledge of support for the program. She organized a fundraiser for the organization, and later volunteered for Feeding America this summer.

Layson outlined her work on a display board, and then built a website for a project and the FCCLA website, in order to host the link to her project’s site.

“I had lots of fun doing it,” she said.

For the display board she created, Layson presented it at regional and state conferences before moving on to the national conference. Her website was selected as one of the top 20 nationally, which brought it into consideration at the national conference as well.

Layson said it was “overwhelming” to receive the national recognition she did. She wished she had joined the organization sooner during high school.

“It was a really, really good experience,” she said.

Kelly Cantrall can be reached at (270) 505-1747 or kcantrall@thenewsenterprise.com.