Wingate University (Day 4)

We kick-started the day off today with the presentation of the company commercials. The first chance for the students to get to show off their technological skills!

Before moving on, each of the companies took 20 seconds to step up on stage and make a few announcements. Whether it was about an event they were hosting or a product they were selling, it was their time to advertise to the whole camp about what they were doing. Along with that, the Justice team took that time to announce their beauty pageant winners! (Drumroll please!) The Mr. and Mrs. FELC crown went to Rachel and Charlie! Between striving for world peace and utilizing their amazing talents, these two will make very successful leaders.

Today, we wrapped up the debate contest. Again, four representatives from each company (who had NOT participated the day before) stood up in front of the audience to debate their opinion on a topic they had only 5 minutes to prepare for! That's difficult in itself...imagine having to openly justify an opinion that's against your own personal belief? It takes a lot of public speaking skills and confidence to pull that off!

Pastor Karen Woods

The students of FELC were in for a real treat as Pastor Karen Woods, the founding Pastor of New Creation Christian Church and former owner of Karen Woods Insurance Agency, Inc., took the stage to speak to the students today. Within 30 seconds, it was easy to see why each and every person in the audience was so easily captivated. Pastor Woods is a very animated and motivation speaker - often interacting with the audience. The topic of her speech today was about "choices" and how each and every person has a choice to judge others by their character and not by their race, gender or any other differences. She spoke of how "we are the world changers and every one of us is unique." Pastor Woods is the first African American to receive the US Senator Jesse Helms Citizen of the Year Award for her contributions to the community and to her faith.

The FELC speech contest is one of the only two individual competitions in the program. Two representatives from each company is chosen (or elected) to write and present a unique and original speech in response to one question: "Does capitalism encourage (or foster) greed?" Some of our presenters said "yes" and some said "no." In the end, it wasn't about the "yes" or "no" answer...it was about how they delivered the message. How was the speaker's public speaking skills? Did he or she sufficiently support his or her answer? Did he or she seem confident? Nervous? All of these factors are important when making a good speech!

T.J. (Ace & T.J.)

Tonight was a special night. Tonight was the E.A. Morris Banquet Dinner where we honored our FELC donors and had a wonderful speaker, TJ from the Ace and TJ Show. TJ spoke to the students about where he came from how he came to own his own radio show.

What really made this night very special was the honoring of a young, beautiful lady named Reagan Hartley. A former student of FELC and counselor of 3 years, Reagan made a special impact on everyone she met. This past April, Reagan passed away due to a vehicle accident caused by a drunk driver. At the banquet dinner, Brian Rogers, the COO of the Jesse Helms Center, presented a flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol to Reagan's mother, Christy Dawson. Congressman Richard Hudson R-Concord provided the flag.

Dec. 19, 1991 - Apr. 3, 2014

We love and miss you, Reagan Lee Hartley.

FELC isn't the same without you.

If you would like to view her obituary, click here or on her photo.