By Kathy Day
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Five teams of Snohomish County residents celebrated their commitment to community this week at the graduation ceremony for the 2001 class of Leadership Snohomish County.
The event, held Tuesday night at the Everett Golf and Country Club, gave each team an opportunity to showcase their class projects, which ranged from building a computer room for kids in Monroe to linking seniors and high school students in Mountlake Terrace.
Leadership Snohomish County, now in its fourth year in its current form, was created to train people to become community leaders, said Tim Nowliss, incoming chairman of the group and director of community relations for The Boeing Co.
"The people who organized it used to go to board meetings and see the same people all the time," he said. "They wanted to change that."
The program is all about helping people get involved and giving them the tools to be successful, he added.
This year’s class of 28 represented "all cross-sections of the community," said County Executive Bob Drewell, who co-chaired the ceremony with Larry Hanson, publisher emeritus of The Herald.
The class members are selected on the basis of a lengthy application in which they detail their current community involvement and interest in expanding it. They go through a seven-month program that includes seven daylong meetings focusing on various aspects of the community from arts to youth and families.
Once they’ve been through orientation, they split into teams to plan, raise funds for and execute their projects.
The class members’ passion was evident as they presented their projects.
Allen Sharples of the Lakewood School District, who was part of a team that called itself the B.A.G. It Center, helped design and build a computer room for youth at the Monroe Boys and Girls Club.
"It was all about building something for the kids," he said.
The other teams also talked about their projects:
You can call Herald Writer Kathy Day at 425-339-3426 or send e-mail to kday@heraldnet.com.
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