Boys & Girls Club of Brown County Junior Youth of the Year Brooklyn Bouldin, an 11-year-old sixth grader at Coggin Elementary, in November finished second in the competition for the West Texas Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs Junior Youth of the Year.
“Being Junior Youth of the Year and being second out of West Texas means a lot to me because it made me feel really special,” Brooklyn said. “People congratulated me, even people who don’t talk to me, and it made me cry because I was so surprised.”
Brooklyn is the daughter of Tylor and Chelsey Insixiengmay and her younger brother, Braundon Bouldin, also attends the Boys & Girls Club of Brown County.
According to Katherine Palmer, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Brown County, the Boys & Girls Club of America has a recognition program called Youth of the Year that is the highest honor clubs offer for club members ages 14 to 18. The competition starts in local clubs, moves on to the state level, then to national regions and the national competition. The winners of each region speak at conferences and there’s scholarship money that’s awarded.
The Junior Youth of the Year, open to club members ages 10 to 13, is a program that clubs offer to help kids prepare for the Youth of Year competition as they get older.
“In our club we honor kids as Kids of the Week, so those are any kids that have a great week showing leadership skills, good character, things of that nature,” Palmer said. “At the end of the month, our youth of the week winners are eligible for youth of the month. Then at the end of the year our youth of the month winners that fall into the correct age brackets for Youth of the Year or Junior Youth of the Year are eligible to apply for those competitions.
“The Junior Youth of the Year has an application that includes a few short answers and one long form essay. We had three who completed the application and the winner was selected by our board of directors. The applications were submitted anonymously, they didn’t know who was who and they selected Brooklyn as our Youth of the Year. She went on the competition in West Texas which was held in November at the Lubbock Boys & Girls Club.”
As for what it takes to become Junior Youth of the Year, Brooklyn said, “You have to have a good attitude, you have to help clean up, you have to help little kids whenever they need help, and throw out some ideas for the club and how to make it better.”
Palmer further explained what took place at the regional competition in Lubbock.
“There was some question and answer with the judges and then there was a speech portion,” Palmer said. “She did a three-minute speech on what the club means to her. Some of the questions she was asked were ‘if you change something at the club what would you change?’ and ‘how would you convince a friend to come with you to the club?’ That was all held behind closed doors so I wasn’t able to see her compete, but she did have the opportunity to give her speech in front of a large group for lunch.”
Brooklyn, who has attended the Boys & Girls Club of Brown County for two years, said what she enjoys most about the club is, “I get to see my friends and especially after a day like today after testing, I finally get a break from being in one room and I can actually talk and be around my friends that are in lower grades, or my cousins.”
Regarding her favorites activities at the club, Brooklyn said, “I enjoy gym and game room the most, and I also enjoying mentoring. In mentoring we cook and talk. This year we have even more people in mentoring so we have boys mentoring now because of how many people wanted to join. This year we’ve cooked enchiladas and banana bread muffins and next week we’re going to make s’mores brownies.”
Asked what she would say to friends to convince them to come to the Boys & Girls Club, Brooklyn said, “You get to get on computers, you’ll get to play all sorts of fun games and puzzles in game room. A lot of my friends love basketball and we play basketball in gym. A lot of my friends like art and you can do art projects. Most of all you could be around your friends more because sometimes you are in different classes at school.”
Brooklyn stated her best friends at the club are, “Ann Marie, Rebecca, Analese, Alyssa, Ruby, Areyn, and Miss Myra.”
Bouldin, who is eligible for Youth of the Year at the teen level next year, is eager to tackle that challenge.
“That’s something I want to do next year and I believe I can do it, and then I believe I can win the West Texas Youth of the Year,” Brooklyn said.
