By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Boys and Girls Clubs of Hutchinson's annual Youth of the Year event will be a little different because of the pandemic.
"We have gone online with our Youth of the Year banquet," said Lindsey Fields with the Boys and Girls Clubs. "We will have three young people competing to become our 2021 Youth of the Year. That's an experience we couldn't skip out on this year. It's the best event we have, in my opinion, because it really showcases the impact of our work and the amazing young people that we serve."
Bri Mora, Sadye Patterson and Catelyn Washington are competing for the scholarship dollars.
"I ran the state Youth of the Year for years," said Skip Wilson with the Clubs. "What these young ladies have had to go through this year. It's almost like applying for college. They have a packet of information they have to fill out, almost like filling out a resume. They need to get letters of reference. There's just a lot of things that they have to do before even working on giving their speech."
Heartland Credit Union is providing the scholarship money for the competitors, but also, the event serves as a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club.
"On our website, we'll have a link, bgchutch.com," Fields said. "Also, as part of that, we'll have an auction and a raffle. We understand that just like in normal years, you might not be available during the actual event, so we've opened up the raffle and the auction to start on Monday, November 30 and end on Sunday, December 6."
Youth of the Year will be streamed live at 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 3.