Select students met with congressman Warren Davidson this week as they attended a faith summit in Fairfield. Mrs. Helms took nine students to the Fairfield YMCA to attend a community meeting about expanding the faith in our community. Students were invited to share input on the community and how to better expand the faith to young people in the area. Zach Wagner, one of the students invited, loved this idea.

“The summit served as a great opportunity for me, as a young person, to share my views on faith and how it can better spread through the community” Wagner said.

The main goal of the summit was to allow students and adults to work together to brainstorm ideas for better ways of getting young people involved in the faith. Students were split into focus groups along with many adults representing faith based organizations in the area along with a facilitator who helped move along discussion.

“I really liked the focus groups, they allowed for some interesting discussion and I was able to provide my views on recruitment for faith based activities” said Sam Pendergest, another student who attended the summit.

The summit was put on by the Fairfield Prevention Coalition, a group based around substance prevention in the community and beyond. They are very faith oriented and believe that faith is a great way to prevent the spread of drugs in the community.

“The prevention coalition was a great host and they informed us all on some pressing matters in the community that I wasn’t even aware of” Wagner said.

The coalition also expressed interest in getting with Badin in order to set up a youth coalition there as well. This was met with good approval and could likely lead to a new program or committee at Badin in the near future. Only time will tell but the students and community are all excited to see what comes next.