Clymer’s FBLA chapter was also recognized as the second best FBLA chapter in the state.

“We were recognized for our outstanding achievement in the National FBLA ‘Champion Chapter’ Program at the state convention — Clymer Central School was the only school in the entire state of NY who had reached GOLD level achievement on March 30,” said Lisa Perry, Clymer FBLA adviser. “We will be recognized for this at the national convention in Anaheim, Calif., this summer.”

Eleven students overall participated in events from Clymer during the FBLA state convention in mid-April; Vienna Durfey, Drew Himelein, Carter Widrig, Matthew Perry, Addie Reynolds, Lily Hamilton, Roman Wassink, Jeffrey Perry, Kierdan Nickerson, Matilyn Rhines, and Kara Collins.

Wins for the chapter are as follows:

Clymer students show their “POW/Program of Work” ribbons that they earned throughout the year on their name badges. This is a very big part of the state convention - to show everyone how hard you worked all year and how many of the state challenges you completed throughout your year. Submitted photo

– state champions in chapter community service project, which included working with local veterans to place flags at the local cemeteries within the school district, hosting a Veteran Recognition Breakfast and Presentation Program at school for American Legion members and veteran family members of FBLA students in November; collecting cancelled postage stamps for the Wounded Warrior program throughout the school year, gathering names and military service information for local veterans to add to the Veteran Honor Wall out in the school’s front yard, and organizing a school-wide presidential election on Election Day, with a real voting booth for Grades five through 12, and photographic paper ballots and a secret voting booth for UPK-fourth grade along with an exit survey for high school students;

– Kierdan Nickerson, FBLA’s Most Outstanding New Member of 2025,

– Matilyn Rhines fifth place Hospitality and Event Planning,

– Matthew Perry first place Critical Thinking and first place financial literacy,

– Kara Collins first place in FBLA Mission and Pledge and second place in Exploring Public Speaking,

Jeffrey Perry stands on stage among the others being officially elected and installed as state FBLA officers. Submitted photo

– second place chapter Annual Business Report written and presented by Jeffrey Perry,

– third place Clymer American Enterprise project coordinated by Roman Wassink and second place intro to FBLA,

– Addie Reynolds second place Career Research and fifth place exploring leadership,

– Drew Himelein first place in Exploring Technology and first place in Digital Citizenship, and

– Carter Widrig second place in both Learning Strategies and FBLA Strategies.

Pictured are all of Clymer’s FBLA students who participated in the state convention. Top Row: Vienna Durfey, Drew Himelein, Carter Widrig, Matthew Perry. Front Row: Addie Reynolds, Lily Hamilton, Roman Wassink, Jeffrey Perry, Kierdan Nickerson, Matilyn Rhines, Kara Collins. Submitted photo

Two Clymer students were inducted into the state FBLA honor society, which Perry said required them to complete an application, get a letter of recommendation, submit student transcripts to prove an overall GPA of 90%, and demonstrate excellence in leadership, community service, and scholarship, as well as have competed at least one previous state FBLA conference.

One other big win for Clymer’s FBLA chapter was having their own Jeffrey Perry campaign and being elected state vice president, being formally installed on stage at the convention on April 10. Perry said he will now be responsible for overseeing all FBLA activities in District 13, which encompasses Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and Allegany counties. He will coordinate and run two district meetings throughout his 2025-26 term of office — a Fall District Meeting in October to provide leadership training to the members, and then the Spring District Meeting and Competitions at JCC in February 2026. He will attend a week-long conference of state officer training at Christ the King Center in Greenwich in July where he will work with his state officer team members to build public speaking skills, plan the state organization’s program of work for the new school year, and plan the 2026 NYS FBLA State Convention that will take place in April of 2026, when his term will end on the last day of that convention as he installs his successor.

The process for Jeffrey Perry to become a state officer began back in October with the application that required him to get signatures from his parents, chapter advisor, and school administrators, followed by submitting a school transcript, a Zoom interview, and to begin studying for his state officer exam in December, which he was required to take and pass in February. Following the successful completion of that, Jeffrey Perry then had to begin planning his campaign platform.

“Jeffrey’s most important goal was to ‘serve his members’, so in keeping with that goal, he created ‘SLC Survival kits’ for each FBLA student in attendance at the state conference which included items that students might not bring with them to the hotel,” Perry said. “Each give-away item had to be labeled with his name and his slogans. Some of his giveaway items were thick bandaids for all the blisters students get on their feet from walking in dress shoes, bottles of water, sweet snacks, pre-sharpened pencils for students who needed to take objective tests with scantron forms, campaign ribbons to give students to wear on their name badges, stain removal sheets for the students who dripped their dinner on their dress clothes, etc. He also prepared tri-fold brochures and a display for his goals.”

At the State Convention in Rochester he then had to go with his campaign team to a candidate screening to get all items and displays approved, followed by being formally nominated by Vienna Durfey on Wednesday evening during the District 13 meeting, where he then gave his campaign speech and participated in a 15-minute Q&A session. On Thursday he set up his campaign booth, where constituents could pick up their SLC survival kits and ask questions, and then voting took place Thursday afternoon, which was done by voting delegates from each school. Election winners were announced during the evening general session, where they were also installed to office.

The last time Clymer saw a member of their chapter be installed as state vice president was Rebekah Wallace, who served from 2009 to 2011. Clymer Central School has had a total of 12 state officers since the early 2000s.

As far as being the second best FBLA chapter in the state goes, Perry said the Clymer chapter has won first place chapter of the year three times since she started, 1995, 2000 and 2007, but earning that first place is hard because of the size of their chapter.

“The schools who beat us in this event often bring over 100 members to the conference and have over 300 student members within their FBLA chapters,” Perry said. “There are member participation requirements for all chapter activities in our chapter of the year digital scrapbook that must be met in order to earn points — but it is either 2/3 of the rostered members or a minimum of 30 members. So hitting two-thirds participation for a small school is much more difficult to do than a school of 300-plus members to get 30 students to show up for an event.”

The chapter of the year event involves a digital scrapbook which is created and submitted prior to the state convention. Students must show visual evidence including pictures, verified reports, documentation, meeting agendas/minutes/treasury reports,etc. for participating in a wide variety of chapter activities that are encouraged by the National and State Associations of FBLA. Some of those items include: holding annual emblem ceremony, induction ceremony to induct new members, installation ceremony for elected officers to take their oath of office, officer planning and training including building a chapter budget for the year, membership recruitment plans and activities, field trips, guest speakers, chapter social activities, community service projects, school service projects, fundraising projects, publicity in the newspaper, social media, radio, and TV, holding school assemblies such as the annual college consortium, making presentations to civic, business, trade, or educational groups such as the board of education presentation FBLA students did back in March and running workshops at the fall district meeting, attending district, state, and national meetings/conferences, participating in district, state, and national competitions that are individual, team, chapter, performance and objective testing; serving as state/national officers, promoting FBLA, completing the annual NYS FBLA Program of Work activities that are designated each year, supporting the NYS FBLA Foundation that provides travel grants to state winners to help get them to nationals, conducting alumni and professional networking activities, and completing/highlighting an outstanding project of the year.

“To me, second place is ‘amazingly fantabulous’ because it shows that the students at Clymer Central School are doing way more individually than the students in those massive-sized schools to be able to earn the points needed to earn second place,” Perry said. “It shows that our little school is doing very big things.”

As far as the rest of the year goes, the chapter is now busy raising funds to help get the chapter’s national finalists to the national convention at the end of June. Planned events to help with this include; two CHAOS activity nights for middle school students, host food truck events at home track meets, and a basket auction to earn money to help offset the travel and conference expenses. They are also currently planning a Red Cross Blood Drive that will take place in the Clymer gymnasium on May 28, and flag placement at local cemeteries on May 19.

Perry said any interested individuals or businesses that would like to contribute a basket to the auction can drop them off at Clymer’s main office.

As for next year, students are already working towards the goal of first place Chapter of the Year.

“Chapter treasurer Roman Wassink said it best, ‘Next year is our year — we are going to get that first place Chapter of the Year,'” Perry said. “There you have it, from the students’ mouths. This conference and all their hard work certainly paid off, and it proved that if they work hard enough and stay focused on their goals, they can succeed.”

Overall, Perry said she could not be prouder of the hard work done by her chapter this year, saying that FBLA is more than just a club, but a co-curricular student organization that provides learning opportunities that are not possible within the classroom.

“It forces them to write long reports and essays that describe what they did, not copy information from the internet,” Perry said. “Today I watch my students shine their brightest as they go give presentations to strangers they have never met. Yep, public speaking that most kids would run away from. … This is why I do what I do. The missed sleep is worth every second of watching them today. I am so proud of my flock and all the personal growth I have witnessed this year.”