Mid-Winter Teen Leadership Conference will take place at the Alabama 4-H Center in Columbiana, Ala. Four students from Butler County ages 14-18 can participate in this event which has a theme of 4-H'ers Building a Nation for Donation.

4-H has established a wonderful partnership with the Alabama Organ Center to organize students giving them the enthusiasm and skills to go home and launch at the county level what will be a statewide 4-H campaign to collect organ registry cards.

A letter of support has been received from Gov. Don Siegelman and he has promised to recognize every 4-H'er who collects 250 registry cards with a Governor's Service Award and a photo opportunity next summer. The National Office for Organ Donation has recognized the program as the pilot state and plans to take this initiative nationally after assessing the program.

The goals and objectives of Mid-Winter are:

Provide Alabama with a unique opportunity to help save lives;

Develop the skills and attitudes needed to kick-off a statewide initiative to build the state's organ donation registry;

Define what is organ and tissue donation;

Learn why it is important to donate organs and tissues;

Understand who receives transplants and how organs and tissues are distributed;

Learn how to become a donor;

Understand what is involved in transplant surgery.

The cost of this retreat is $65 and any student who is interested may contact the Butler County Extension office at 382-5111 for more details.