The Mossy Creek Elementary School Beta Club has some new hardware.
Members recently competed in the virtual state competition, said Detecia Oosthuizen, club sponsor. Students entered 21 categories, capturing honors in seven of them, including first place in color photography.
Oosthuizen noted students had to adapt to the virtual format, while submitting digital entries and maintaining distancing during the making of a video.
“But I was so proud of them. They were very compliant with making sure that we did everything we needed to do. It was great,” she said.
The categories where students placed include first place in color photography (Nix Pulliam), second place in painting (Brooke Crane), second place in book battle (Rachel Anne Godfrey, Harper Murphey, and Audrey Whitaker), fourth place in fourth grade social studies (Harper Murphey), fourth place in digital art elementary (Dylan Krisiak), fourth place in technology (Saylor Kelley, James Frazier, Brayden Barnes, Rachel Anne Godfrey, Harper Murphey, and Audrey Whitaker) and fifth place in fifth grade math (Hunter Moyers).
Because the convention was held virtually, Oosthuizen lamented that students missed out on the traditional event experience.
“The excitement of convention, the excitement of when they’re calling out their names and they get to run up on stage and get their award, that part … because I knew before hand and we decided to make a big deal about it here, so we had to kind of wait to get plaques in and the anticipation. It was a long, time-consuming process,” Oosthuizen said. “But for the fact of them competing, they were still as excited.”
Following the state convention, students will now compete virtually at the national convention. Three of the students will be at the convention in Orlando on the final day, so they will be able to accept any awards their receive in person, Oosthuizen said.
Oosthuizen said she was really impressed that her students were able to achieve 87 service hours with so much happening over the past year.
“That was with us not meeting on campus one time,” Oosthuizen said. “These are all individual services hours they submitted.”
The club was also named a 2020-2021 National Beta School of Merit, which is earned by a school offering Beta Club to all eligible grades. The club was also named a National Beta School of Distinction, which is earned by increasing club membership by at least 10% from the previous year.