When Hitting Cancer Below the Belt founder and executive director Mindy Conklin learned about the concept of creating a junior board, she was intrigued.
HCB2 is a Richmond-based nonprofit organization committed to prevention and education about colorectal cancer, and Conklin, like many nonprofit leaders, is always on the lookout for new volunteers to help carry the mission forward. A junior board is just what HCB2 needed, she thought.
Junior boards are often set up by nonprofit organizations to bolster their board of directors’ efforts as well as to generate new ideas and reach new donors. However, while most junior boards are composed of college graduates and young professionals, often under the age of 35, Conklin purposefully aimed quite a bit younger for HCB2.
“Every member of our Junior Board is still in high school,” Conklin said. “Their energy is contagious, they are hungry for an advanced volunteer experience, and they are just as committed to our mission as our Board of Directors. It’s honestly been an amazing experience and I wish we had done this earlier.”
It’s also personal. Though it isn’t a requirement for a position in the group, Conklin says every member of the Junior Board has been touched in some way by the effects of colorectal cancer.
Most HCB2 Junior Board Members Have a Personal Commitment
“Many of our Junior Board members have either lost a family member to colorectal cancer, knows someone who is fighting it, or has a peer or family member with a precursor condition like Crohn’s disease,” Conklin says. “Their passion comes from a very personal place, which strengthens their eagerness to engage even more.”
Conklin says having younger volunteers also helps the organization organically spread colorectal cancer education and awareness to a surprising target demographic that is seeing more and more diagnoses — young people.
“A lot of people still think this is an old man’s disease, and it’s not,” Conklin said. “Diagnosis is rising considerably in the age 20 to 35 population, so it’s important to engage that demographic within our organization so they can share this information in their everyday lives with their peers.”
To strike a balance between the student-members’ school work, jobs, and just being a teenager, Conklin says the HCB2 Junior Board typically takes on just one big project per year — but these aren’t menial tasks by any means. Last year, the HCB2 Junior Board took on the end-to-end creation and production of a public service announcement video, which is called “Why I Care?” and available to watch on YouTube.
“We tasked them with creating a PSA that breaks the stigma of colorectal cancer as a concern just for older people, and they nailed it,” Conklin said. “It features several of our Junior Board members and their schoolmates and it offers a very personal message that we feel really connects with a younger audience on an emotional level.”
The Junior Board’s accomplishments were recently presented and acknowledged at the Southeastern Colorectal Cancer Conference held in Norfolk in June.
“Fifteen states came together for the three-day conference and it was an honor to present the work of our Junior Board to over 200 stakeholders and medical professionals,” Conklin said. “The response was simply amazing, and their work was a major contributing factor to HCB2 being awarded the Colorectal Cancer Champion for 2023 by the Virginia Colorectal Cancer Round Table.”
However, the Junior Board isn’t resting on their well-deserved laurels. They are currently engaging in their next task — helping HBC2 prepare for its 10th anniversary celebration and outreach initiatives at the end of this year.
