Entrepreneurial Long County High School students plan to put to good use the business skills they recently picked up at a recent Future Business Leaders of America Conference in Athens.

Seven members of the club attended the conference and now the club is planning a Jan. 15 blood drive, according to LCHS FBLA advisor Jeremy Scott.

The students participated in classes focusing on leadership and on how to improve their school’s FBLA chapter. Seminars also prepared the teens for skilled event competitions that will be held in the upcoming school year.

Though the conference primarily was to teach students, there also were times set aside for fun, Scott said.

Activities included playing Monopoly against students from other schools.

“The Monopoly tournament gave me the opportunity to work as a team and accomplish goals in the business world like what is to come in future years,” said Erica Golden, one of the LCHS student representatives. “The game made me realize that I can’t go in there and try to control everything, it’s going to be a team effort; it was a very fun and easy-going game — however we dominated our game.”

Students Dalton Long, James Caswell, Taylor Rogers, Sanquez Fair, Michelle Garcia and Mathew Rowe also attended.

While the seven were at the conference, other club members were busy gathering food for the hungry.

Scott said the other students collected 187 canned and boxed food items that were donated to a local church to be distributed to needy families in the area.

The club has plans for the upcoming year, Scott added, with the first event being the blood drive.

“The drives that the FBLA takes part in are a great opportunity for our students to help give back to the community,” Scott said.

After the blood drive, several students will attend a regional leadership conference in Savannah as part of a district competition, where winners will advance to state competition.

“Our students have been working very hard this year and have done a great job representing the FBLA and LCHS,” Scott said.

For more information on the blood drive, call Scott at 545-2135.