The Saint Albans Success Club

Success Club Members Visit the United States Courthouse!

Saint Albans High School Students Learn About Justice and About Using the Success Strategies in the Work of Work and in Life

 

Success Club members Jarred, Maddie, and Meg visit the Robert C. Byrd United States Courthouse in Charleston, West Virginia in January 2015.  They met for ninety minutes with United States Attorney Booth Goodwin who mentored them and gave them a tour of the beautiful courthouse.  It was a great day!

Success Club Members Hang Their Club Banner at SAHS!

Success Club Members Show Off New Success Signs For 2014!

Saint Albans Mayor Dick Callaway Accepts Success Signs For The Saint Albans Community

 

Success Club members Connor, Reilee, Meg, Madison, and Jarred show Mayor Callaway the new success signs for 2014!  The signs encourage citizens to cultivate good character!

The Saint Albans Success Club Works With Mayor Callaway To Further The Cause Of Good Character In The Community!

Success Club Co-Founder, Jarred, meets Saint Albans Mayor Dick Callaway

 

Saint Albans High School student, Jarred, met Saint Albans Mayor Dick Callway during a recent newspaper interview about the citywide character campaign sponsored by the Saint Albans Success Club.  Jarred was in the fifth grade at Alban Elementary when he and a friend, Hunter, had the idea to start the club. Five years later, the club is still going strong and the students are still working hard to share the success strategies with others in the community!

Success Club Featured On Television Show!

Success Club Featured On "Community Issues"

 

Saint Albans Mayor Dick Callaway invited the Saint Albans Success Club to be his guests on the Library Television Network's show Community Issues to inspire the West Virginia Municipal League.  Club director, Deb Austin Brown, and club member, Meg, discussed with Mayor Callaway the history of the Saint Albans Success Club and their newest project-- a citywide character campaign, now in its second year.  The show airs on Suddenlink channel 17 beginning on May 31.  It airs on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Success Student Visits Television Studio!

 

Meg was one of the first four charter members of the Alban Success Club in 2009.  She stepped up to the plate of leadership on May 29, 2014 to record a television show with Saint Albans Mayor Dick Callaway.  Meg enjoyed seeing the studio, and she did a good job on the show articulating the club's mission and projects! Thanks, Meg!

Saint Albans Success Club Participates in Founders Day 2014!

Students from Alban Elementary, McKinley Middle, and Saint Albans High shine!

Saint Albans High School Student Leaders Chart Direction

Jarred Carter, Maddie McNeil, and Hunter Atkins plan for 2014-2015 school year!

New!  The 7Cs Business Project

 

Success Club founders Jarred and Hunter have mapped out a plan for the Saint Albans High School Success Club for the 2014-2015 school year that joins business leaders with success students in a cooperative project.  

 

The 7Cs Business Project incorporates 7 important components:

  • Cooperative
  • Collaboration
  • Companies
  • Club
  • Coaching
  • Character
  • Community

 

The students plan to meet with business leaders from the community once each month to discuss workplace scenarios.  The students will work with their coaches to apply success strategies and character lessons to help solve business problems.  It is going to be more than a double win!  It will be a triple win-- because the community and city economy will benefit in the long run when these remarkable students take jobs in our community! 

Saint Albans Mayor Dick Callaway is First Business Coach to Help!

Business Coaching Session #1:  Mayor Dick Callaway

 

The Saint Albans Success Club had its first business coaching session on November 20, 2014.  Dick Callaway spent an hour with students Joseph, Jarred, Maddie, and Hunter sharing his experiences in the world of work as a teacher, counselor, radio station owner and broadcaster, television show host, and leader in city government.  He gave the students real workplace scenarios and problems and let them solve them by using the success strategies.  The students learned so much and are grateful for the world of work experience!

 


Success Club enters its second year at Saint Albans High School!

Saint Albans High School joins the Saint Albans Success Club

 

Saint Albans High School has joined Alban Elementary School and McKinley Middle School as members of the Saint Albans Success Club.  Club director, Deb Austin Brown, was excited to add Saint Albans High School to the community effort.  Membership is open to all SAHS students who would like to learn the strategies to become smart, good, and successful in school, in sports, and in life!  The club meets the second and third Thursday of each month after school from 3:00 to 4:00 in the Red Dragon Alumni Room inside the school library.  Bring a friend!  And please, help spread the word!

McKinley Middle School Success Club completes its 3rd year!

Thursdays Mornings Before School

7:00 - 7:45 a.m. 

 

The first meeting of the McKinley Middle School Success Club was held on Thursday morning, October 17 at 7:00 a.m. in the Art Room at McKinley.  Staff sponsor, Mrs. Janet Sheldon, was joined by student club leaders, Margaret Cantley and Shaylen Dunbar in leading the club.  The club started the school year with ten members: Connor, Will, Tanner, Ashleigh, Heather, Margaret, Shaylen, Brady, Sydney, and Jayd.  Success teacher, Deb Austin Brown, will help with the club. The club will meet each Thursday morning before school.  Please help spread the word to all McKinley students!  

McKinley Middle School Success Club members meet each Thursday morning!

Alban Elementary School Success Club completes its 5th year!

Meeting Schedule 

 

All meetings are held after school from 3:00 to 4:30 one Thursday each month in the school library.  This year, Alban school counselor, Mrs. Megan Lyon, will build connections between the Success Strategies and the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  The Success Club is open to all Alban 4th and 5th graders.  This year, 48 students were members of the Alban Success Club!

 

October 24, 2013

November 14, 2013

December 12, 2013

January 16, 2014

February 6, 2014

March 6, 2014

Alban Success Club 2011-2012

Kids Love Success Strategies, Too!

 

Kids all over are taking the success strategies to heart!  They are listening, learning, and using the strategies to make positive changes in their lives.  It is exciting to see!

 

The Alban Success Club was their idea.  The 2009 brainchild of students, Jarred and Hunter, the club has grown to 99 elementary school members and has moved on to McKinley Middle School. Saint Albans High School will be starting a Success Club soon.  Then, students will have the success club opportunity in Saint Albans in grades 4 through 12. 

 

It is a true joy for me to sponsor this endeavor.  On this page, I will be showcasing their thoughts, their ideas, their writing, and their work.  Read and learn from these remarkable kids.  You will find their ideas to be insightful, heartwarming, and profound.  Their proverbial wisdom can light your path in life.  Let it!

 

- Deb Austin Brown

Nashville Star Drummer, Rich Redmond, Visits Success Club

Rich was joined by Nashville songwriter Doak Turner and local radio personality Matt "Gunner" Pauley of WV Radio and 96.1 The Wolf Radio

Professional Drummer, Rich Redmond, Makes A Personal Investment in the Success Club

 

Drummer Rich Redmond grew up in Texas and now makes his home in Nashville and Los Angeles. On April 18, 2013, Rich came to Charleston for an evening concert with country music artist, Jason Aldean.  But before reporting to the Charleston Civic Center for a 3:00 sound-check, Rich made his way to Saint Albans to the April meeting of the Success Club.  It was one of the club's greatest hours!

 

The 36 students from Alban Elementary and McKinley Middle Schools were treated to a pizza lunch as they listened to Rich Redmond teach his C.R.A.S.H. course for success.  

 

C = Commitment

R = Relationships

A = Attitude

S = Skill

H = Hunger

 

Rich tied in his lessons with the 99 success strategies that the students have been studying for the last four years.  It was an impressive hour of good lessons and strategies for living.  Rich's high energy and passion for living was evident.  The students were spell-bound!  Rich shared his own journey with the students, inspiring them to follow their dreams and to work hard to reach them.  He talked about the power of practice in developing skill and about the hunger, hard work, and effort required in achieving success.  Rich gave each student an autographed picture, and he signed a drumhead for the club. 

 

Also attending the event were Nashville songwriter Doak Turner and local radio personality Matt "Gunner" Pauley from WV Radio and 96.1 The Wolf radio.  Doak is a long-time supporter of the Success Club, and Matt is a new member of the Success Club.

 

We look forward to more events like this where people like Rich, Doak, and Matt give for the common good-- making our world a better place!

 

West Virginia Legislature Honors Success Club

Citation Honors Students

 

On April 18, students in the Alban Success Club received a citation honoring the work of the club.  The seven students were: Mattie, Lindsey, Heather, William, Connor, Ashleigh, and Dami. They were called to the legislature after Delegate Meshea Poore heard them speak at the Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration at the West Virginia Cultural Center in Janauary.  The words of the students touched everyone in the audience that night.  The students continue to make contributions in their community! Way to go, kids!

A Helping Hand: Success Club dad, Ben Brown, installs the beautiful success tiles made by success students

Ceramic Tile Mosaic Will Teach Future Generations

Success Club members illustrate their favorite success strategies!

Toyota Makes Student Dreams Come True

Success students Lindsey and Mattie hold the check that Toyota donated to the members of the Alban Success Club.  The $250 award donation will help the students achieve their goal of teaching the community about good character and the success strategies.  The students in the club wanted to make and place success strategy signs out into the community for all to see.

Success Signs Help Everyone Better Navigate the Roads of Life

Success students-- Will, Lindsey, Mattie, and Jack-- hold a few of the success signs that will be placed throughout the community.  The students in the club felt strongly that everyone needed to know the strategies that they have been studying in school for the last six years.  The students want the signs placed everywhere!  If you would like a sign for your school, park, playground, church, or business-- let us know!   

Alban Success Club 2012-2013: 44 Students On A Mission To Make The World A Better Place By Sharing The Success Strategies

Success Club 2012-2013 members want to share the success strategies with everyone!

Success Magnets made by club members share character messages with everyone!

 

Students in the Alban Success Club made success magnets illustrating favorite success strategies to sell as a fundraiser for the club.  Money earned will be used for community service projects.  Giving back is a great goal of the club!

Success Kids Design Placemats for Chick-Fil-A!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Gala 2013

 

These seven students presented an oratory performance at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Gala on January 19, 2013 at the West Virginia State Capitol's Museum of Culture and History.  Their remarkable speeches touched the lives of everyone in the audience.  These students are amazing examples of the good in mankind.  Dr. King would have been so proud!

Saint Albans Mayor Dick Callaway Attends 2013 MLK Gala

Saint Albans Mayor Dick Callaway donates 8 success signs to our town!

U. S. Attorney Booth Goodwin and U.S. Marshal John Foster Visit

Success Club members surprised with an award for distinguished community service!

 

United States Attorney Booth Goodwin, Assistant Melvin Smith, and United States Marshal John Foster visited Alban Elementary to speak with members of the Alban Success Club on the afternoon of March 8, 2013.  The students were surprised with an award recognizing their community service and were also presented with a picture of Attorney Goodwin with his success sign posted by his office door.  It was a great afternoon learning about the power of making good choices in school and in life!  Thanks to these remarkable men for their contributions to our club and to our community!

Doak Turner Speaks to the Alban Success Club Members: 2010

Nashville Songwriter and Positive Thinker

Visits the Success Club

Saint Albans native, Doak Turner, came home for a visit and stopped by school to visit with the members of the Success Club.  Fifteen members listened and took notes as Doak talked about the importance of positive thinking and the importance of following your dreams.  He brought a success book as a gift for each club member.  It was a personal copy of the classic by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking.  The books were a gift from a Nashville business woman.  She had heard about the Success Club from her friend, Doak, and wanted to support the students in their efforts.  The kids were so happy to receive her generous gift.  She also sent positive messages on bookmarks and magnets!  The kids are finding out, firsthand, that if you are a positive thinker who dreams big and works hard, wonderful things will happen.  Doak told the success students that he honestly feels that they will come to influence thousands of kids around the globe with their work!

 

You can listen to Doak's songs at www.doakmusic.com.  The Success Club students are especially excited about Doak's song entitled Run With Your Dream!  They plan to run with their dreams, too!

Success Club Has A Nashville Connection

Saint Albans natives Doak Turner and Rob Byus return to their roots!

Doak Turner, Songwriter and Nashville Businessman

Rob Byus, Bass Player for Country Music Artist Blake Shelton

 

The Alban Success Club has two new friends and associate members, Doak and Rob!  These generous men gave of their time and talents to come to a club meeting and share success strategies and stories with the students!  Doak and Rob also signed autographs!  It is a day the kids will long remember!

Doak Turner Is Guest Speaker At McKinley Success Club Meeting: November 21, 2012

Original Alban Success Club Members: Jarred, Hunter, Sammy, and Doak

Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Gala 2012

Success Students Speak at the

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Holiday Gala 2012

at the West Virginia State Capitol

 

Tanner, William, Sydney, Meg, Lydia, Sammy, Margaret, Jarred, and Hunter represent the Alban Success Club by speaking at the MLK Gala.  They presented an oratory entitled The Power of Words.  The audience was touched by their beautiful and thoughtful speeches.

Success Cub Members With Their New Positive Thinking Books From A Nashville Sponsor

"I discovered the power of positive thinking at age 25 by reading

Norman Vincent Peale's book, and it changed my life. 

It has been an amazing adventure ever since!"

- Nashville business woman

Melissa, age 10

Take good notes and live by them!

 

Success club member, Melissa, shows her success notebook that she uses for taking good notes.  It is filled with character quotes, ideas, thoughts, and success strategies.  Melissa keeps it with her each day and records new entries from each club meeting.  Melissa also writes paragraphs and essays on good character and success.  She is always finding new ideas out in the world and adding them to her notebook.  Way to live and learn, Melissa!

The Success Club

Ever since I joined the Success Club and started listening to the success strategies, my life has changed-- and it will stay that way.  I am becoming a better person.  The Success Club has changed me because just sitting down listening to everybody tell their ideas-- it's just so exciting!  Also, the success strategies help me keep my mind wide open.  I am so happy that the success strategies have started stretching around the world!

 

If... then!

If I learn, then I will succeed.

If I succeed, then I will go to college.

If I go to college, then I will get an education.

If I get an education, then I will get a job. 

If I get a job, then I will get paid.

If I get paid, then I can buy a house.

If I buy a house, then I will have a place to live.

If I have a place to live, then I can have a peaceful life.

If I have a peaceful life, then I can make a difference.

If I make a difference, then I will be successful!

Success Bear

The Alban Success Club Mascot

 

When you squeeze his paw, you hear the voices of the kids in the Success Club chant the club's motto, Dream big! Work hard!

Megan, age 8

The Success Strategies

The Success Strategies change your life if you pay attention.  Listen, work hard, and use the strategies to help you on your life's journey!  Use the success strategies as a compass to help you sail on the Sea of Success!

 

Climb Up the Ladder of Success

When you use the success strategies, you can climb to higher levels on the ladder of success to reach your goals in life!

Reading Ziglar

The Alban Success Club has enjoyed a personal relationship with master motivator, Zig Ziglar. This kind and generous man has sent letters and books to the Alban students.  In return, the students have sent him letters as well as a success pillow that reads See you at the top!  Here, Meg reads some of the timeless wisdom in Zig's book. Great words to live by!  

Courtney, age 10

Success!

is for success

is for unique

C  is for caring

C  is for commitment

is for excellence

is for strategies

is for a successful life

Success Bracelets

Wearing Our Favorite Ideas!

 

The kids loved this idea!  They dove right in to the big trays of colored beads and began building their success bracelets!  Each one was different.  Favorite success strategies were spelled out with alphabet beads and colored star-shaped beads were placed between words.  The kids thought about selling them as a fund-raiser, but decided to keep and wear them, instead!  

Jarred, age 11

How to Be Successful

To be successful, you must have a purpose for your goal.  Here are some resourceful tips:

  • Be responsible for your actions.  If you do something wrong, admit it!  Everyone makes mistakes here and there.
  • Pay attention!  Paying attention in school and out in the world will take you far.  Paying attention in school will help you get good grades on a test.  And, good grades all throughout school means a well-paying job, a mansion, and maybe six dogs.
  • Be a kind person.  If you are a good citizen, then other people will want to be your friend.  In this cruel, dog-eat-dog world-- anyone at anytime could use a helping hand.  So, lend one!
  • Take pride in your work.  When you are asked to complete a paper, make sure that it is neat.  Don't rush; take your time.  Getting good grades in school is a great way to have a successful future!
  • Make a good impression on someone.  Making a good impression is essential.  If you are interviewing for a job or position, you must do everything you can to make a good impression on someone.  For instance:  Dress neatly, use appropriate language, use good manners, and say Good morning!
  • Be your best to succeed!  Doing your best in school is the #1 Thing to being successful in the 21st century world of work!

 

The Success Wisdom

Learn it!

Live it!

Love it!

Hunter, age 11

Success Club

I am eleven years old and in the fifth grade.  I became interested in the Success club through my friend, Jarred.  I need a bit of help with organizational and preparation skills, and I believe that my involvement with the cluband with Jarred's newspaper will help me in these areas.  I am following in the footsteps of Ryan Broderick, who participated in the Success Project and has gone on to have many cool opportunities.

 

I believe that the key to the door of opportunity is not just given to you.  You have to work hard for it.  I have many ideas of what I might want to be one day.  I may be a counselor or an archeologist.  Whatever I decide to do, I know that the skills I would learn working on the newspaper and being in the Success Club would help me to achieve my goals.

Samantha, age 9

The Success Club

The Success Club is fun!  But it is not for playing around.  You have to work hard.  And everyone is successful.  You always work hard in Success Club, but you do a lot of fun stuff.  You are reaching a goal when you are in the Success Club.  I love the Success Club!  All of a sudden-- when you are at Success Club-- your brain clicks and you start brainstorming ideas like crazy!  Your head feels like it's going to explode!

 

Success Strategies

You start out as a tadpole, and then you grow into a big, successful frog!

Alexis, age 10, makes the first success pillow!

As a community service project, success students make 100 pillows with positive, uplifting messages and donate many to kids at Women's and Children's Hospital!

Success Strategies

Dream big.  Shoot for the stars.  Turn the pages of life.

These are three sentences that everybody needs to acknowledge in order to become more successful in life.  If you have a plan for the future and don't think you'll ever be able to accomplish it-- then you probably won't.  You have to believe in yourself to accomplish anything in life!

 

Instead of just reading the book of life, turn the pages and live it!  You won't understand some of life, but that's just how life is.

 

There are bumps in the road, but you have to know how to get through them.  The success strategies will help.  Don't be a person who never succeeds.  Be the one who will lead!  Don't throw your life away.  Here's your chance today!  Dream big!  Shoot for the stars!

Success Club Idea Tree

This is the way the Success Club is run... by the kids!

 

Most school clubs are directed by teachers whose ideas shape the direction of the club.  Not the Alban Success Club!  The club was started by students, and the club's direction is shaped by students, as well.  At each meeting, the students brainstorm their ideas for club activities and projects.  Students respectfully listen to the ideas of others, and then piggyback their ideas on that foundation.  Each idea is recorded on a leaf and added to the tree.  As the ideas are added, the tree grows to incredible proportions.  It is an amazing process to observe!  Success Club director, Deb Austin Brown, thinks that there is no club like it anywhere in the world!  She is honored to be a part of this very special club and loves working with these remarkable students!

Ashleigh, age 10

Impact

The impact the Success Club has had on me is immense.  It gives me the motivation to make a difference.  I have been so much more inquisitive and have been trying harder than I thought possible.  I thank Hunter, Jarred, and Ms. Brown for being so generous as to make the effort to make this club.

Dami, age 10

The Success Club

I think the Success Club is fantastic.  Ms. Brown, you are teaching them well.  They do wondrous things.  They are kind and respectful.  They cooperate with each other. They do stuff that other kids dream of doing.  Every person in that club is going to do great things.  I know it for sure.  I quote now, "Being successful isn't just completing one thing, it is completing a ton of things."  I give this club 10 stars!

Connor, age 10

Make no small plans!

This is a great and inspiring success strategy.  I often think about this success strategy.  It reminds me to think of the endless possibilities in life-- such as what I can be, what I can do, and what I can give.  It teaches me that average is easy and to challenge myself.  I can relate this to the success strategy, Aim high!  

 

This strategy means more than just a few words on a page.  In life, we should follow this strategy and dream big, think big, love big, and give big.  If you choose to follow this strategy, when you are older and look back on your life you will not look back with regret for what you could have accomplished.  This is my favorite success strategy because it is just four words that can change the world-- starting with you.

Mattie, age 10

Believe in yourself!

Believe in yourself! is one of the most important success strategies to me.  If you want to be a successful person, you have to believe in yourself.  Believing in yourself is simply doing what your heart tells you is right-- not what other people say.

 

It might be a bumpy road now, but if you start believing in yourself the road will eventually flatten out and end up getting all better.  All of the great people in history have once believed in themselves, too.  If you believe in yourself, you can accomplish many things.

William, age 10

Making Mistakes

I've made several mistakes; so have you.  In my mistake-filled life, I have strived for success-- which sometimes leads to another mistake.  One day, I finished a long, detailed letter to First Lady Michelle Obama.  Three months later, I got a response!  It made me think I had gotten as successful as I could be, so I let up and went average.  All of my friends were getting awards and were making their lives one-of-a-kind.  I looked around and felt-- well, kind of average.  I felt the opposite of my friends by being the only person who was average.  So, today I am devoting my life to being successful, because boring is just not me!

Lindsey, age 10

Effort, Not Excuses

I'm in a play called "The Nutcracker".  We have practice every night from 6:30 to 8:30.  I got some bad grades last week because I did not have time to study.  But play practice is not an excuse for bad grades.  It takes a lot of effort to learn and to perform the play.  A lot of my effort has to go to my school work, too.

 

I go to an after-school program called Third Base.  I have to do my homework the whole time I am there.  My friend, Ciara, and I have no time to play and hang out together at Third Base.  I also have patrol and clubs that meet after school.  That just means I have less time to do homework at Third Base.  

 

At home I have less time to watch TV, and I have to stay up later.  I fall asleep when I am studying at home.  It take a lot of effort-- not excuses-- to succeed in life.