Recently Great Bend city Manager Howard Partington gave the nod to community coordinator Christina Hayes to hire an intern to assist her.  After observing her outstanding organizational skills at work with the Panther Paw Craft Fair, Hayes knew GBHS junior Sara McAfee was just the person for the position.  
“Sara is a real go-getter, and I’m really excited to be able to give her this opportunity,” Hayes said.  
McAfee credits her involvement with the high school’s Future Business Leaders of America club for giving her the outlet to prove herself, which led to Hayes offer two weeks ago.  The club has organized the event for eight years, and this year, McAfee, the club president, stepped in to take on the work normally done by sponsor Cody Lee, who was on maternity leave during a critical period of time leading up to this year’s event.
So far, she has helped Hayes catch up with work from the holiday season, and assisted with organizing surveys and preparing a calender for work starting next year.  She’s also met with and been interviewed by radio and newspaper media.  
Her advice to other high school student’s looking for work is never to take for granted the little opportunities.
“I think students don’t realize how important the little jobs can be,” she said.  “If you throw yourself into each one with one-hundred-percent enthusiasm, you never know when it’s going to pay off.”
Hayes said Partington would like to keep young people interested in staying in Great Bend.  Opportunities and experiences like McAfee’s internship help students gain important job skills and a gain a chance to prove themselves to potential employers, which build commitment and loyalty to the community.
McAfee said she is not certain what her career will be, but knows she will attend college after high school.  For now, she looks forward to learning all she can from Hayes and hopefully continue her internship through the summer and her senior year of high school.