For The Sentinel

More than 400 youth, ages 14-18 years, from the Porterville, Visalia and Hanford areas will gather June 15 and 16 for a youth conference in Hanford hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

According to Sherry Cowen, who along with husband Mike is chairing the event, the teens will be well fed, physically and spiritually. "And they are in for a very good time," she said. "They will be very busy."

Events for the two-day conclave will be held at the LDS Church and at Hanford High School. Dances, dinners and evening sessions, which will feature guest speakers and special musical numbers, will be at the church. Motivational workshops, activities and lunch will be on the school campus.

John and Sara Grass of Selma, who have taught ballroom dancing professionally, will conduct a dance workshop. Licensed clinical social worker Justin Thomas, of Hanford, will present a workshop on dating and communication. "Putting on the Whole Armor of God" is the title of the workshop that will be given by Navy pilot and Cmdr. Hal C. Murdock of Lemoore Naval Air Station. Murdock also serves as bishop of the LDS Church in Lemoore.

Cowen said an important component of the conference is the service projects, "when the youth have an opportunity to give back to the community." The hundreds of attendees will be divided into groups. One group will go to the Excelsior fire station and wash fire trucks and other service vehicles. Another group will go to The Remington Senior Living facility. There, they will have a sing-along, will visit with residents and will wash residents' vehicles, if requested. The third group will be at the high school assembling hygiene kits for the church's vast humanitarian aid effort. Combs, toothbrushes, toothpaste, bars of soap and hand towels will be placed into hundreds of plastic zip bags and shipped to the church's humanitarian aid headquarters in Salt Lake City. From there, kits, along with food and other emergency supplies, will be distributed to people worldwide as disasters strike.

Educator Milton Woolsey of Bakersfield will be guest speaker at the Friday evening session. The conference keynote address will be given by M. Russell Ballard of Salt Lake City, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He will speak Saturday evening and will be introduced by his teenage granddaughter, Amanda Murdock, of Lemoore.

"We are thrilled to be hosting a conference of this magnitude and to have Elder Ballard coming," said Cowen. "We have been preparing for this event for months."

Rex Buchanan of Selma, one of the adult leaders, said an over-arching purpose of the conference is to build and strengthen faith in Jesus Christ. "A concluding highlight of this conference is an opportunity for the youth to share with one another their testimonies of the Savior and how their experiences at the conference have enlarged and refined that testimony," he said.

The teens will be housed in homes of church members in the Hanford, Lemoore and Kingsburg areas. Among those sitting on the planning committee are Hanford teens Haley Christensen, Kimberly Fausett, Kyle Higginbotham and Lacey Martin; and from Lemoore, Chryssa Hayes and Evan Casaus.

(June 9, 2007)