Five members of Epsilon Beta traveled to Kansas City from March 29-30 for the FHN chapter’s second trip to the State conference. Six schools came to the conference making a total of 74 students. This year’s conference featured an Old Hollywood theme and throughout the course of the event, students had the opportunity to participate in activities ranging from a trivia night to a book talk presentation.

“I got  a lot of ideas to add to the club,” senior and Epsilon Beta President Breanna Relleke said. “The whole point of Epsilon Beta is to encourage literacy and it just gave me a lot of ideas for the club.”

When club members arrived at the conference, the first activity was a social and trivia night in which members dressed up in Old Hollywood costumes. The questions topics ranged from Marilyn Monroe to past Disney movies.

“Seeing everyone dressed in Old Hollywood stuff was cool,” sophomore Aimee Clive said. “It wasn’t just rag tag stuff. They were going all out.”

Epsilon Beta also took home a second place in a quiz bowl tournament after correctly answering several questions about the Dewey decimal system and 2015 Gateway nominees. Other components of the conference included a book talk competition, tour of the steamboat Arabia and a campus tour of the Kansas City Art Institute.

“I really liked the campus tour because it wasn’t just focused on literacy,” Relleke said. “It also included the art aspect and it was nice to see those creative juices flowing.”

At this year’s conference State Vice President and junior Zoe Lawson was promoted to president. State cabinet members are responsible for planning the State convention each year as well as other responsibilities. While at the convention members also voted to have the next State conference in Jefferson City.

“We were all very proud that we have the president at our school,” Epsilon Beta Sponsor Angie Davis said.

Overall, Epsilon Beta members believe that the conference was successful and that FHN will continue to attend. Members also were able to become closer because of their shared experiences throughout their time in Kansas City.

“We all got closer,” Relleke said. “Dressing up for stuff and going on the tour caused us to be more tightly knit.”