FCCLA Returns to U of I

Members of University of Idaho’s recently resurrected chapter of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) are conducting a large-scale fundraiser that will also benefit people in developing nations.

FCCLA is a career and technical student organization, like FFA, that operates within schools and teaches life skills in the family and consumer sciences (FCS). Members of the organization attend leadership conferences, engage in community service and participate in competitions covering the gamut of FCS disciplines.

U of I brought back its FCCLA chapter during the 2023-2024 school year. The chapter recently started a statewide shoe drive, accepting donations of used shoes in good condition at drop boxes on campus in the Niccolls Building and the E.J. Iddings Agricultural Sciences Building, as well as at the university’s off-campus agricultural research and Extension centers and the UI Extension office in Ada County, located at 5880 Glenwood St., Boise.

Donations will be accepted through Dec. 1, though the drive may be extended if the club falls short of its lofty goal of filling a tractor-trailer with donated shoes.

The shoes will be given to Funds2orgs, which is a global social enterprise headquartered in Florida, for distribution to micro-entrepreneurs in 26 developing nations. The micro-entrepreneurs will sell the shoes in second-hand stores in their communities, and the U of I FCCLA chapter will receive $10,000 for the load of shoes. Shoes should be free of holes and have tread remaining on the soles.

The chapter intends to use some of the funding to help FCCLA students participate in competitions. High school chapters that drop off shoes at U of I research and extension centers will receive a share of the proceeds proportionate to their donation. The U of I FCCLA chapter will donate much of the funding to members’ favorite Idaho charitable causes. 

“I’m spreading the word to all FCCLA groups throughout Idaho to contribute,” said Ginny Lane, advisor of U of I’s FCCLA chapter and a registered dietitian who is an assistant professor within the Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences. “Lots of people have huge amounts of shoes they collect, and they don’t wear many of them, and they don’t know what to do with the rest. Having a cause like this gives them an opportunity to make good use of them.”

In addition to the shoe drive, the U of I FCCLA chapter also organized a fall pumpkin-carving event.

The chapter lost several members from last year due to graduation and is focused on recruiting, with plans to begin hosting regular meetings on Wednesdays. Abbigail Bishop, an FCS education major who is minoring in nutrition, is the chapter’s president.

“We feel like a lot of the FCS education majors don’t really know what FCCLA is, and when you become an FCS teacher you have to have a career and technical student organization under you,” Bishop said. “FCCLA is an option.”

Members of the U of I chapter will volunteer to evaluate high school students who participate in FCCLA competitions during the Idaho Student Leadership Conference, scheduled for April 16-18 in Boise. Collegiate FCCLA members are only eligible to compete in competitions at the national level. The 2025 FCCLA National Leadership Conference is scheduled for July 5-9 in Orlando, Florida.

Competitions cover FCS disciplines such as culinary arts, early childhood education and apparel, textiles and design. Participants must create a portfolio to present to judges. While in high school, Bishop competed in Say Yes to FCS, which entails playing the role of an FCS teacher and preparing a lesson plan, and she made a quilt from old T-shirts for the Repurpose and Redesign competition. FCCLA conferences also include educational sessions.

For more information about FCCLA or the shoe drive, contact Ginny Lane at 208-885-2538 or vlane@uidaho.edu.

Published in Catching Up with CALS