Red Oak, IA – Eight middle school Montgomery County youth are asking for your help to collect non-perishable and canned food items for the upcoming holiday season. The Montgomery County Ricochet Leadership group will be collecting the previously mentioned food items until November 7^th when the items will be sorted and donated to each of the three food pantry organizations in the Red Oak community. Items will be collected at the Montgomery County Extension Office, the Montgomery County YMCA and the Red Oak Hy-Vee.

Ricochet Participants, minus 1

The Montgomery County Ricochet Leadership group is comprised of eight, sixth through eighth-grade youth, from both Red Oak and Stanton. Ricochet: An Extreme Leadership Adventure is a leadership development program created by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach youth specialists, where youth learn about the skills and attitudes needed to become a leader within their school and their communities.

Although the youth spend a large portion of the program participating in activities that emulate the five different dimensions of leadership, participants are also challenged to complete a Community Leadership project to help better the communities in which they are living. The youth work together with adult leaders to identify a need, or needs, within their communities. Once a need is identified, the youth develop goals and an action plan to complete their project.

To learn more about the Ricochet – Community Food Drive or the Ricochet Program, please contact Celine Beggs, County Youth Coordinator, at the Montgomery County Extension Office by emailing cmbeggs@iastate.edu or by calling (712) 623 – 2592.