By Jean Schurman
Ali Elliot of Victor will be heading to Thailand next week for a month-long stay in Thailand. Elliot is the daughter of Lucy Brieger and Steve Elliot. She will be a senior this fall at Victor School. This American Youth Leadership Program trip is fully sponsored by the State Department and the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana.
The focus of the trip is food security and climate change, leadership development and community service. Elliot has a particular interest in food security. Her parents are the owners of Lifeline Produce, a large organic farm on the southwest corner of Victor. She said there would be at least one place where they will be staying in a home and “hopefully having hands on experience in planting rice.”
Since she has grown up farming, it’s understandable Elliot’s interest is in these new farming experiences. She currently grows and sells parsley and chard. She markets her crop through the Western Montana Grower’s Co-op, the same place Lifeline Produce is marketed. They used to also be a landmark at the Missoula Farmers Market but no longer go there. Elliot said she misses going there because of the people she met. “I grew up doing that,” she said.
Elliot’s older brother, Wendell, also went through the AYLP program. He toured Cambodia. Elliot said her father heard about the program and encouraged her brother to apply. After Wendell made the trip, Elliot knew she wanted to try to go as well.
The selection process involved two applications and an interview. There is emphasis on community service, maturity, social skills and open-mindedness, according to the AYLP Thailand website. Elliott will have to complete a list of assignments while on the tour and then do some sort of a community service project once she returns. She is considering doing a community dinner with Thai food that she learned about on the trip, although she’s hoping it’s not all really spicy.
Elliot said she will probably do a year of service in Americorps after graduation from Victor next spring. She’s not sure where she will go to school but if she receives a hockey scholarship somewhere, she’d like that. She’s been playing hockey since she was small and is now on a traveling team, playing hockey around the Northwest.