By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The Hays Chamber is set to once again bring leadership training to the city, with the upcoming 2022 Leadership Hays seminar sessions.
“It's really about partnerships and relationships,” said Marlis Fletcher, Hays Chamber administrative assistant, who participated in last year’s sessions. “You learn how to collaborate with the other people that are participating.”
She said the class helped build connections to the community and allowed her to grow as a person and learn more about Hays.
During the sessions, attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in a service project.
“In each class, they have a project and get to choose what they want to do,” Fletcher said. “In our class, we also had Samantha Gill from the library. We did a storytime space at the new ARC Park.”
Fundraising for that project is ongoing, with work slated to begin in the spring, she said.
“It's going to be a really nice little storytime space with a little stage and some stools and some benches where. If somebody wants to go play guitar, they can go play a guitar there … or if they want to read a story to their classroom or their daycare."
It might also serve as a stop for the Hays Public Library Bookmobile, she said.
While this year’s project is still up in the air, excitement for the sessions is growing as the start date of Feb. 16 approaches.
While seats for this year’s session have been filled, a waiting list has already been started for next year’s session.
“I’m super excited about it,” said Mariah Legleiter, Hays Chamber vice president of marketing and communications. “I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to really see what I can give back to the community and be put in a position where we ask the hard questions and get to participate in discussions about it.
“It's going to be exciting to think about over the next couple of weeks,” she said. “I'm excited to make those connections, as well, and learn more about Hays. Because again, Marlis said that she lived here her whole life basically, and learned things about Hays through the program. And so I'm excited to learn some things and maybe quiz my husband and see if I can finally beat him in some Hays trivia.”
For more information, visit the Hays Chamber’s website, hayschamber.com.