The Durant Elks Lodge served local students lunch in honor of Youth Appreciation Day Thursday.

Jerry Mowles, chairman of the event, thanked several people for their work, such as the homemade spaghetti sauce.

Mowles said this is Youth Appreciation Month. The Elks Lodge tries to hold the appreciation day early enough to get more schools involved. But, this year Bennington, Kingston and Boswell had not been able to attend.

Schools that did attend the event were Achille, Caddo, Calera, Colbert, Durant, Rock Creek, Silo and Victory Life.

Mowles said next year they will try and have it in April so the event does not conflict with tests and other banquets.

He said the event is for valedictorian, salutatorian, senior class president and vice president. But, Durant sends their honor students which is the top 10 percent of the class, and so he wants to try and incorporate the honor students from the other schools in next year’s event.

“We are going to try to get where we can honor all of the seniors with a good grade point average,” Mowles said.

“We invited you here to show our appreciation to the youth,” Exalted Ruler Rich Bancewicz said.

He said the youth are the future of the community, state and possibly the nation.

Bancewicz discussed some of the items the Elks Lodge does such as fundraisers and help youth and veterans. They also do an annual golf fundraiser to go towards scholarships to Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Connie Arneson, Academic Advising and Outreach Center at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, was guest speaker for the event. She had everyone applaud the Elks Lodge for hosting the event.

She told students that when they enter Southeastern, “I am your new best friend.” Her job is to help assign students to classes that fit their schedule. She said college is a whole new way of life.

“As you know your high school career is behind you,” Arneson said. She said it is time for the students to look towards college.

“I want to see each and everyone of you go to college,” she said. Their college degree is something that can not be taken away.

Arneson said students do have to submit applications and go through certain steps to attend college. She told the students that if they had not started the process yet, then they needed to get on it.

She said that at Southeastern they have over 50 degree programs including biological sciences, aviation, occupational health and safety, education and business school.

“Thank you for having me. Congratulations to the class of 2009,” Arneson said.