ROBERTSDALE, Alabama --- Students in the Career Tech Education program at Central Baldwin Middle School are hard at work preparing for competitions set to begin next month and they are hoping that hard work pays off with a trip to nationals.

Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, Dawn Hopper with the CBMS Family Consumer Sciences Career Tech Education program, supervises students in the Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA).

Since July, the students have been preparing for Students Taking Action with Recognition (S.T.A.R.) competitions.

“They have been working really hard preparing for competition,” she said, “and they are committed to working every Tuesday and Thursday after school in preparation for the state competition in hopes of representing our school at the national level.”

Twelve seventh and eighth grade students at CBMS are working to prepare seven separate projects for the state competition, which will be held at Auburn University at Montgomery March 8 and 9.

Three students are working on individual projects for the competition, while there are three sets of two-person team projects and one three-person team project preparing for the competition.

Shelby Ray and Morgan Baron, both eighth graders, are working on a Chapter Showcase project for competition.

They are putting together a scrapbook which chronicles the accomplishments and activities of the class, using photos, newspaper clippings, fliers, programs and other materials to complete their project.

Eighth grader Rebecca Lomax and seventh grader Julia Weaver are working on a Project Life Event Planning project.

Their focus is to plan their trip to the National Competition, which will be held July 8-12 in Orlando, Fla., scoping out the best deals on hotels and travel, while planning both scheduled itineraries and extra outings, including a trip to Disney World.

Eighth graders Hannah Gremillion and Dera Pugh are working on an Entrepreneurship project for the competition.

Their project includes making and implementing a business plan. Through their business, Southern Belle Sweets, they make and sell cookies, figuring cost and profit margin as a fundraising project.

Eighth grader Summer Allen is working on a project for Food Innovations competition.

For her project, she began with a recipe, tested the recipe on focus groups, and modified the recipe based on data collected from the focus groups.

She will then prepare the recipe in advance for judges at the competition and judging will be based on the taste of the finished product, as well as analysis of the data compiled during the study.

Seventh grader Sarah Stevens is working on a project for the Recycling Redesign competition.

As part of the competition, she is developing two separate products using recycled materials. From an old hub cap, washers, bolts and nails, she is designing a product she says will either be a bird bath or bird feeder. She is also constructing a wind chime using old spoons, forks and other materials.

Seventh grader Carol Ann Salter is working on a project for Applied Technology competition.

For her project she is developing a PowerPoint presentation on cyberbullying using photos and articles to define cyberbullying, plus ways to prevent cyberbullying and what you can do if you feel you are a victim of cyberbullying.

Perhaps the largest project being worked on involves a trip of seventh graders, Sara Devine, Ashley Kendrick and Olivia Kendrick.

For the National Programs in Action competition they chose a community service project.

The project was split into multiple parts, the first coordinating with the William F. Green Veterans Home in Bay Minette. The three students adopted three veterans through the Home’s Christmas Angel Tree program raising $350 which they used to shop for gifts from a Christmas wish list.

Next, the girls worked with the building construction class at the South Baldwin Center for Technology, splitting the cost of a $380 project to build planters which will be installed at the Veterans Home . The project also includes the collection of plastic bottles, which will be filled with top soil and used as individual planters as part of a conservation project.

The final portion of the project was the organization and implementation of a blood drive at the school.

Hopper said she and the class would also like to thank volunteers Shana Barnette and her son Cutter, Kyle Murphy and Regina Salter for their help on the projects.