Three "Hummms" for Cory Wilde!

by Pat Cothran, proud Auntie

LANA (Llama Association of North America), among other things, operates a wide-ranging youth program encouraging creativity, leadership, community service, and personal development. It holds Youth Across America contests annually that are open to all youth. Categories include Llama Project Record Book, Art, Community Service and Essay.

This year my great-nephew Cory, whom many of you have met and worked with, and others of you have read about on volchat and in the SELR newsletters, entered the Community Service contest. LANA states that the service work done by the contestant must be done "for free," and that the contestant cannot be reimbursed either financially or otherwise for the work. The judging criteria included the number of hours spent in service, the type of work, the documentation of the work, and originality and creativity. The work had to be completed within the last 12 months, and accompanied by a note from the parent or guardian verifying that the entrant did the service work.

Cory's entry was a scrapbook-type documentation of his volunteer work for SELR from May 2007 though April 2008, just before the deadline for submission. This included his help at two Shear Chaos days last spring, his help with exhibiting two llamas at a local day- camp one day last summer, his help in manning the SELR booth at SAFF last October, his help with tagging and loading the Texas-bound llamas last fall, his help to Alvin with fencing paddocks at a foster home, his help with the clean-up and closing down of the Mountin' Hopes facility last December, his fostering of two SELR llamas – Noches and Showoff, his assistance with my own SELR fosters by feeding, mucking stalls, shearing, giving shots and oral meds, and parasite identification, and several other SELR-llama related volunteer activities. In addition to the positive comments made by those of you who got to know Cory that I pulled from the volchat archives, I requested letters from some of the folks who had worked closely with Cory during the volunteer days, and I appreciate the time invested in those letters highlighting Cory's contributions. His scrapbook contained the letters and volchat comments, SELR newsletters, photos of Cory in his various llama activities, and his descriptions of his various duties.

I am so excited to announce that Cory received a call this evening congratulating him on his 1st place Gold Medal win in his age division (8-13) in the Community Service contest!!

I am grateful that SELR provides opportunities for youth to be involved in llama rescue and ways to contribute to a higher good. And I am grateful that LANA honors the youth who do just that.