Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy presents at monthly chamber luncheon

Kayne Pyatt, Herald Reporter
Posted 7/23/19

Evanston Chamber of Commerce holds monthly luncheon

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Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy presents at monthly chamber luncheon

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EVANSTON — Chamber director Tammy Halliday began the July 11 Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting with a thank you to Chamber Diamond sponsors and a welcome to new chamber members Jeannie Staley of Uinta Realty and Traci Gomez of Evanston Homestead Realty. She then announced Brian and Stephanie Davis of Home Décor as Business of the Month. 

Accepting the award, Davis said, “We inherited the store and have only been in Evanston two and a half years now. I graduated from Evanston High School in 1989 and left. When Mom and Dad talked about the possibility of closing or selling the store, Stephanie and I decided to move here and take it over. We love being a part of the community and we love the store. Stephanie will be taking over more of the management of the store as I just took a job with NGL. I want to say that we feel we are a mini-chamber as 50-60 percent of our business comes from out-of-town visitors. We constantly tell them about the Roundhouse, the state park, the museum and more. We feel we are ambassadors for Evanston and love it.”

Halliday then introduced the keynote speaker for the luncheon, April Corwin, Recruiter for Region 2 with Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy. 

Corwin began by saying a new class was starting the following Sunday with 100 students signed up. The Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy (WCCA) is a state agency operated under the oversight of the Wyoming Military Department. The program is 75 percent federally funded and 25 percent funded by the State of Wyoming. The academy is one of 40 programs nationwide, which are all part of the National Guard Bureau’s Youth Challenge Program. 

WCCA educates, trains and mentors non-traditional learners in a quasi-military environment at no cost to participants. The five-and-a-half-month program gives young people, males and females 16–18 years of age, the skills to become productive and responsible citizens. In order to be eligible for the program students must be a U.S. citizen with no felony convictions or drug use, and must volunteer for the opportunity to improve their lives.

Founded in 1993, the program has graduated more than 150,000 participants nationwide. The Wyoming program held at the National Guard facility in Guernsey began in 2006 and has graduated more than 1,000 cadets. Wyoming is the only state in the nation that allows participants to come from outside Wyoming if they don’t have an Academy in their home state. The academy is fully accredited with the Department of Education. 

Corwin said, “I love working for the Academy and watching the difference it makes in young people’s lives. The goal of WCCA for participants upon completing the program is for them to return to high school, become employed, enter college or vocational training or join the military.”