For Amber Bennett, the Boys & Girls Club is part of her life’s landscape. It’s where she discovered and refined her love and talent for art. Over the more than 10 years she has been a member, you could often find her in the Club’s art room, either working on her latest painting or guiding younger members in a fun project. For several years, Amber has contributed a piece of her original artwork to be auctioned off to benefit the Club. It was her way of giving back to the place that has given her so much.

“The Boys & Girls Club showed me that I could be someone. To a person who once believed she was nothing, that means everything.” – Amber Bennett

When she became Central Wyoming’s Youth of the Year in the fall of 2015, she earned a $5,000 Ruth R. Ellbogen Scholarship and went on to win the state title in February and a full ride scholarship to the University of Wyoming. As Wyoming’s representative, Amber traveled to Dallas, TX, to compete in the Southwest Region Youth of the Year alongside seven other state winners.

But that’s not all. Through generous gifts from our donors, Amber was able to travel to one of America’s most breathtaking landscapes to further fine-tune her technique for oil painting. For a week in September, as a senior in high school, Amber attended a plein air painting workshop on-site of the Grand Canyon.

The youngest in her group, this workshop, through the Scottsdale Artists’ School, is usually geared toward adult painters. Her studio each day was her easel, canvas, paints, and brushes perched along the edge of the Grand Canyon, picturesque in vibrant shades of browns, reds, and grays set against the bright blue of the open sky. She says what she learned while there will make her better at her craft.

“I am so thankful for this trip and for the past year as Wyoming’s Youth of the Year. I’ve had the opportunity to do things I never would have had would it not have been for the Boys & Girls Club.”