Former professional football player Spencer Conley will be giving an inspirational speech from 6-7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at Tenino High School. Conley is currently a mentor to Seahawks center Justin Britt. Any proceeds will benefit Citizens for Tenino Schools.
Spencer Conley, former professional athlete and mentor to Seahawks center Justin Britt, will give an inspirational speech from 6-7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at Tenino High School.
A fundraiser for Citizens for Tenino Schools, the event — “Spencer Conley; Finish Strong by Putting Talk into Action!” — will indirectly aid Tenino School District.
“The ticket sales will benefit Citizens for Tenino Schools, which is a nonprofit group that provides outside support to the Tenino School District for helping fund bonds and levies,” said Forrest Bergin, coordinator of the event in an email to the NVN.
Bergin said that the speech isn’t just for school-aged children.
“This event is open to anyone and everyone,” he said. “The focus is geared towards middle school and high school aged students and their families. However, adults even without children of that age will still greatly benefit from Mr. Conley’s powerful message.”
According the event’s Facebook page, Conley encourages people “to not just dream but wake up and live it; live beyond doubt, lack, fear, race, gender and excuse.”
Bergin’s familiarity with Conley began back in the spring of 2017, at the Justin Britt Football Camp in Bellevue.
“We got an opportunity to come down to the field and hear him speak, and — a few minutes into him speaking — I was driven to find a way to get him to come to Tenino to talk to our youth,” Bergin said.”
At this point, Bergin simply wanted Conley to speak with the young athletes in Tenino, since such an event was smack dab in the middle of Conley’s wheelhouse.
So in the spring of 2018, the Justin Britt Football camp came to Tenino, thanks in no small part to Bergin’s efforts, and Conley gave the young athletes a motivational message that inspired Bergin to try and bring Conley to a larger audience.
“Mr. Conley is a personal mentor to multiple professional athletes,” Bergin said. “After receiving so much positive feedback about his message, we decided to ask him to come back to engage youth outside of the football arena.”
While the goal for “Spencer Conley; Finish Strong by Putting Talk into Action!” is to help with district bonds and levies, Bergin hopes that the event will be mean even more than that.
“I’m hoping to provide a valuable take away message rather than a typical fundraiser-type event,” Bergin said. “I would like to do more of these types of events in the future depending on the feedback I receive.”
All in all, Bergin said the Tenino School District is “moving in a positive direction” and that he values the accomplishments the district has made over the years.
“We also recognize that [the district] needs additional funding to continue that trend of much needed improvements,” Bergin said. “We want the best for our staff and students — they are a great group of people.
Loves Travel Centers and the Walmart Foundation are partnering with Citizens for Tenino schools to help support this event. Visit teninoschools.brownpapertickets.com for ticket information.
