Meet Youth of the Year Candidate Alex Walker

How many kids know what they want to be when they grow up when they're six, and more importantly, stick with it until they’re 18? There’s only one I know: Alex Walker, the Broken Arrow Youth of the Year candidate. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Alex went all the way to the regional Youth of the Year competition last year as the Oklahoma candidate. But he was only a junior then, so he gets to compete again. He's now a senior at BA High School. I was amazed at the project that helped Alex shoot to the top of the charts last year: he collected 100,00 items in 100 days for  Broken Arrow Neighbors, an agency which helps people in need in BA.

The project earned Alex his Eagle in Scout Troop 995 which meets at the BA club. Alex says the club is his life. “I’m out there any time they’ll have me,” he said. And every time I’ve been at the club, I’ve found it to be true. When I see Alex he’s usually shooting hoops with younger kids, some of them in BA’s Challenger program. Janis Fraley, BA director, said Alex has been busy the last few months selling Lucky Ducks, earning the club about $1,250 one dollar at a time. I thought maybe  Alex would want to go into sales, but he says his dream since he was six is to be a pharmacist. He’s planning to study pharmacy at  Southwestern Oklahoma University in Weatherford next fall. No doubt there are a lot of lucky ducks at the club who will miss him dearly.

-Sallie