By Jim Beers, Contributing Writer
Mabry Wingerter just finished her sophomore year at Chester High School and with that accomplishment she became eligible to be nominated as a candidate to attend the 2022 Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Seminar, better known as HOBY this summer. HOBY stands for Hugh O’Brian Youth.
CHS School Counselor, Kristin Wolter, heard of the popular leadership conference for high school students who had just completed their second year of high school and asked permission to form a committee to seek nominations from CHS to take part in this life-changing event.
The committee came up with several students who would likely enjoy this opportunity and after careful consideration, selected Mabry Wingerter to be offered the chance to represent Chester High School at HOBY. Wingerter accepted the offer and attended the 4-day 2022 HOBY Camp Thursday through Sunday June 16-19.
CHS student Mabry Wingerter attended the 2022 HOBY Leadership Seminar June 16-19 at Illinois Wesleyan University. She was selected from a group of several other Chester High School students that have just finished their sophomore years. Her leadership potential helped to earn her the Ambassadorship to attend the seminar. She was sponsored by the Chester Rotary Club. Jim Beers Photo
Mabry is the daughter of Chris and Nicki Wingerter and is an excellent student at CHS. She is active in both the sports and academic arenas and maintains a perfect 4.0 grade point average. She was selected for the honor of representing CHS at the HOBY Camp due to her strong leadership skills and desire to help make both her school and community better places.
Wingerter was one of 72 youth to attend the 2022 Illinois Central South HOBY Camp. Those youth were divided into eight groups of nine students who worked together through the camp.
Wingerter said, “It was a bit intimidating at first because I was the only student from the Chester area to attend. There was one student from Carbondale, one from DuQuoin, one from Nashville, one from Belleville West, and one from Mascoutah, but even those five schools are from quite a distance away. The other 66 were even further away. Once we all got settled, we all became good friends and the distance or size of the other schools did not matter.”
“It was impressive when we arrived at Illinois Wesleyan University. There was a very high level of energy and everyone was dressed in 90’s apparel to go with the theme of the event. There was loud music playing and people rushed to us to greet us and assist with our unloading.”
“We had private dorm rooms to help protect against COVID and everyone received two HOBY T-shirts upon arrival. Everyone was so friendly it didn’t take long to start to feel comfortable in our own skin!”
Hugh O’Brian was born in 1925. At the age of 17 he became the youngest drill instructor in the Marine Corp. After serving in the Marines he pursued his true passion, acting. He became famous with his portrayal of lawman Wyatt Earp in, “The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp.” This Television series ran from 1955-1962.
He then kept busy for several years with other acting projects in film, television, and on Broadway. It was soon thereafter that Hugh became interested in his new passion, HOBY.
In 1958 O’Brien was invited to Africa where he had an enlightening two-week visit with Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the famous German doctor-missionary-theologian-musician. He volunteered at several of Dr. Schweitzer’s hospitals, and spent his evenings with the doctor discussing global peace and world politics.
During one of their discussions, Dr. Schweitzer told O’Brian, “The most important thing in education is to teach young people to think for themselves!” O’Brian returned to the United States with a new passion which was to create leadership seminars for young leaders. He therefore started Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) to train high school students to utilize their leadership skills to make their schools and communities’ better places.
Six decades later, HOBY is still inspiring young people all over the world to develop leadership and critical thinking skills to achieve their highest potential. Currently more than 10,000 students that have just completed their 10th grade schooling are attending HOBY Leadership Seminars each year.
These seminars are run by more than 4,000 volunteers with community leaders, business executives, educators, and parents involved in each seminar. Each seminar strives to follow the HOBY motto of teaching students, “How to think, not what to think!”
HOBY is a non-profit organization. Its format for motivation is to bring a select group of high school students who have just completed their sophomore year together. These select few have demonstrated leadership abilities. They are brought together with leaders in business, education, government, and other professionals. Together they interact and the young students learn to “Think for themselves!”
During the 2022 Illinois Central South HOBY Leadership Seminar titled, “Leadership is ALL THAT and a Bag of Chips”, Chester’s Mabry Wingerter and 71 other Ambassadors, as the students are called, met for four days to expand their leadership skills and learn how to think for themselves.
2022 Leadership Chairperson, Kiersten Grathwohl, known at seminars as “HOBY MAMA” told the Ambassadors (student participants), “This week we want you to learn, GROW, OPEN YOUR MIND AND HEART, MAKE FRIENDSHIPS THAT WILL LASAT YOU A LIFETIME, and ENJOY YOUR TIME while you are here!”
“You were chosen to represent your school and community because someone sees something special in you, even if you might not. From this moment forward. YOU ARE A LEADER! We will provide you the tools that will allow you to begin to think for yourself and craft the leadership style that suits YOU!
Grathwohl led a team of seven leadership guides or committee members trained to lead the events of the seminar. In addition, there were numerous other guest speakers and panel members that rose from the list of former attendees at previous HOBY Leadership Seminars.
These staff members helped fulfill the goals and objectives of the 4-day seminar based upon their learned skills and current professional achievements. They helped guide and train the 72 attendees at this year’s seminar.
Each day began at 7:00 a.m. with lights on and personal preparation for the day. Breakfast was from 7:30-8:30 a.m. with a briefing of the day’s activities from 8:30-8:40 a.m.
Wingerter said, “They kept us busy all day long! Everyone attended the daily seminars, lunch, dinner and a brief time for personal rest and relaxation each day. Bed checks were conducted at 10:15 p.m. each night and lights-out followed after 30-minutes of time to wind down.”
Each day there were “energizers” or “ice-breakers” to help all students to become familiar with each other. Group leaders helped guide the activities of the day and main event presentations were enjoyed by everyone.
Day 1 sessions included “Introduction to Leadership”, “Personal Leadership” with related activities, “Group Leadership”, “Group Leadership Activity: Shark Tank”; “Lightning Talks”, a time with “HOBY MAMA”, and some “group time”.
Mabry Wingerter’s group won the “Most Creative” award for their Shark Tank creation of a “Gutter Buster” tool that would help clean gutters. In the session, each group had 20-minutes to come up with an idea and give a presentation to the entire 72-person group of Ambassadors. For a first-day activity, this was a very challenging assignment.
Day 2 started as usual. Morning activities included an “Egg Drop” project and a “Scavenger Hunt”. After lunch there was a group photo and a “College Talk” presentation educating students about various aspects of college life. A “Futures Fair” was also held to allow students to explore various career opportunities.
Prior to dinner there was an introduction to “Service Leadership” followed by a “Leadership Panel.” Following dinner there was “group time”, “Roll Call Energizers”, a “brief” from HOBY MAMA Kiersten Grathwohl, and an “ice cream social”. Lights were turned out at 10:30 p.m.
In one of Mabry’s individual activities, she had to complete and “Identity Circle” which described various traits that she possessed. Mabry described herself as being positive, competitive, encouraging, and supportive, along with being determined, organized, an achiever, and a perfectionist.
Day 3 began with wakeup, breakfast, and a morning overview of Saturday’s events. The opening training activity was an introduction to a “Service Leadership Project”. As a 72-person group, the HOBY Ambassadors worked throughout the morning creating “Rice Bag Meals” for a group called the “Meals of Hope” based in Naples, Florida.
This service project had all 72 Ambassadors creating complete food bags with which to feed hungry populations. Each of the eight groups of students worked on a production line to make and pack wholesome meals with contained rice, beans, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to feed a family of four.
The individual meals were boxed into cases and will be sent to various food pantries and organizations that feed hungry people. The theme of the project was, “Communities coming together to end hunger.”
Mabry Wingerter (center) poses for a picture with Chester Area Christian Food Pantry staff as she made a contribution of two cases of protein meals that were created as a Service Leadership Project at the 2022 HOBY Seminar. Each of the 72 students at the seminar had to choose an agency at which to donate two cases of the food product. Wingerter chose the CACFP. With Wingerter (left to right) are Kathy Hustedde, Bob Koenegstein, CACFP Manager, Dave Hustedde, Mabry Wingerter, Mark Colvis, Danny Hornbostel, Keith Kittell, and Barb Kittell. Jim Beers Photo
Wingerter was allowed to bring two cases of the product to Chester to donate to the Chester Area Christian Food Pantry (CACFP). She made that presentation to Bob Koenegstein, Manager of the CACFP on Monday June 27 at the Pantry.
During the afternoon students worked on “Brainstorming” both as individuals and in groups created based upon the regions of the state from which they came. Mabry decided she had a keen interest in helping fellow students in the areas of improving grades, organizing classrooms to get involved in helping create a better school, helping teachers, and making a difference in her community of Chester.
The regional group in which Mabry participated decided to organize a run, such as a 5-K run titled, “Running for Resources”. Profits from these runs would be utilized to help schools and the communities with funding for much-needed improvements both at school and in the community.
The remainder of the day students attended a “Leadership for Service Fair”; “Rest and Relaxation with Molly” which was a yoga session; “Group Time”; and a diversity awareness session titled, “Inclusive Leadership Diversity Circle”.
Pictured is Chester High School’s Mabry Wingerter with the other 71 students that attended the 2022 Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Seminar June 16-19. The event was designed by the late Hugh O’Brian who created the annual seminar for sophomore students who demonstrated leadership potential. Photo by HOBY staff
Day 4, the final day of the HOBY Seminar was Sunday June 19 and students could attend a morning worship service if they so chose to do so. A morning brunch was held 9-10 a.m. and the group was energized from 10-10:10 a.m.
The final training activity was titled, “life with HOBY” and was presented by the HOBY Panel. Feedback forms were completed and there was a session called, “Gratitude” after which groups met for the final time. Closing ceremonies ended the 2022 HOBY Seminar and students checked out from 1:30-2:15.
Mabry said, “This was definitely an amazing experience! It was great spending four days with 72 other amazing people who all wanted to do better and be better. I now intend to take what I’ve learned to Chester High School and to the community of Chester and implement the leadership skills to improve both school and the City of Chester.
Mabry was sponsored by the Chester Rotary Club and will make a presentation to the organization to highlight the week’s activities at the HOBY Seminar.