Leadership Northwest Missouri Class of 2006 held their graduation ceremony Thursday evening, June 29 at the Benton Club in St. Joseph.
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Leadership Northwest Missouri Class of 2006 held their graduation ceremony Thursday evening, June 29 at the Benton Club in St. Joseph.
The celebration included a reception, dinner and program. Steve Snook of Cameron, a 2001 graduate of the Leadership Northwest Missouri program, served as emcee. Rev. Sandy Davis of the Savannah United Methodist Church gave the invocation. Trenton Community Development Director Sean Burge served as class representative and spoke on behalf of the class, sharing their experiences of the last six months. Steve Schieber from Andrew County, a 2001 graduate of Leadership Northwest Missouri, presented the Leadership Northwest Missouri Citizenship Award for 2006 to Dr. Bob Bush of Maryville. Mrs. Brenda Parman, LNWMO Board chairman of Grant City, presented each of the 23 graduating class members a plaque for completing the program. Julie Jones of Chillicothe was presented a certificate of participation.
Leadership Northwest Missouri is a leadership development program designed to bring together participants from throughout a 16-county region to sharpen their leadership skills, explore regional issues and gain a network of contacts throughout the region. The class began in January and continued through June with monthly sessions in various northwest Missouri communities. Classes were held in Chillicothe, Fairfax, Jamesport, Maryville, Rock Port, St. Joseph and Stanberry. Each session contained instruction on various leadership skills, in-depth examinations of various issues facing the region and hands-on exercises.
In addition to economic development, other regional issues that were addressed included health status/healthcare delivery, education, infrastructure, workforce issues and the legislative process.
Leadership Northwest Missouri is a program of Healthy Communities.
Members of the class included Charity Austin of Grant City, Worth County Economic Develo-ment; Gordon Becton of Prince-ton, Premium Standard Farms; Bruce Burdick of Albany, Univer-sity of Missouri Hundley Whaley Center; Sean Burge of Trenton, City of Trenton; Cathie Chalfant of Trenton, Northwest Workforce Investment Board; Chad Davis of Trenton, Trenton Municipal Utilities; Dr. James Gardner of Trenton, North Central Missouri College; Jeanette Kragel of St. Joseph, Northwest Missouri Area Health Education Center; Corey Lehser of Rock Port, USDA, Farm Service Agency; Carol Mathes of St. Joseph, Heartland Foundation; Deb Merritt of St. Joseph, MERIL; Maggie Reever of Maryville, Community Services, Inc.; Michael Ritter of St. Joseph, Missouri Western State University; Ann Schlueter of Rock Port, Atchison County Develop-ment Corpoeration; Becky Simp-son of Gallatin, University Exten-sion; Allison Strong of Maryville, St. Francis Hospital and Health Services; Tammy Thompson of Maryville; St. Frances Hospital and Health Services; Wayne Voltmer of Craig, Holt County Commission; David Waltemath of King City, Citizens Bank and Trust; Scott Washburn of Chilli-cothe, law office of Scottt Wash-burn LLC; Weldon Wilhoit of Cameron, Purdential Snook Realtors; and Eric Woodward of Carrollton, Gibson Funeral Homes, Inc.