Hi! My name is Felecia and I am a junior at Greensville County High School in Emporia, VA.  I have been a member of Y Street for two years and this is my first year as a Y Street Leadership Team (YSLT) member.  Although I have only been a part of the leadership team for a short amount of time, I feel as if I have learned quite a bit already.

Not only has Y Street taught me leadership skills but it has also helped me brush up on my social skills, which is always a good thing. Throughout my time in Y Street, we have worked on two major campaigns, Share The Air and Rev Your Bev.  Share The Air is about promoting and advocating for tobacco-free outdoor spaces across the state and Rev Your Bev focuses on increasing water access, consumption, and promotion in schools. 

In October 2020, I met with my school division’s Nutrition Director.  The purpose of our meeting was to discuss the Rev Your Bev campaign and share information about the Y Street program. I was extremely nervous because I wanted to make an amazing impression on the Nutrition Director.

During the meeting, I began to calm down and finally breathe with each piece of information that was ushered out of my mouth. We talked about the purpose of Rev Your Bev and ways that youth gather support and feedback from the community such as through online surveys. We also discussed the previous achievements and milestones of our partner schools and shared awesome pics from last year’s annual Rev Your Bev Day activities.

When the meeting was over, the Nutrition Director was really impressed by the information that was presented and by how well the campaign was put together.  She agreed to support Rev Your Bev and help with raising campaign awareness any way that she could. It gave me great satisfaction to know that I had just made a big contribution to the campaign.

That meeting taught me that you don’t have to be an adult to make a big contribution to your school and community.  Activists come in all shapes and ages.  I was extremely proud of myself because I had set out to make a good impression and inspire the Nutrition Director, and that’s what I did.  I hope this meeting encourages the school division to take in the information and incorporate Rev Your Bev’s best practices into schools’ efforts. I look forward to more meetings just like this in the future.  Who knows…. maybe one day a Y-Ster will be meeting with me as a chairwoman of some sort. The sky’s the limit from here!

To learn more about Rev Your Bev, visit revyourbev.com.