News Photo by Julie Goldberg From left to right, Alpena High School juniors Madison Smith, Kiersten Wirgau, and Madison Timmreck show off some items that are in Campus Closet, the school store.

ALPENA — Campus Closet, the Alpena High School store, has received gold recertification from the Distributive Education Clubs of America, allowing three student managers to compete at the DECA Internationals contest in Orlando in April.

Last year, Campus Closet was gold-certified for the first time and students have to recertify the store every year. The students had to write a maximum 25-page paper that promotes the products in the store and outlines how they target their customers and how the store is run.

Juniors Madison Smith, Madison Timmreck, and Kiersten Wirgau are going to the state competition in Detroit from March 8 to 10 to give a presentation about Campus Closet. The three students are also going to Orlando in April for the international competition.

“It’s almost like prep for internationals,” Timmreck said of the state contest, “because we already became recertified, then you automatically go on to internationals, so it’s almost like you’re practicing with people from your state. When you go to internationals, it’s a higher level, with harder judges, and then you’re competing against all states.”

Wirgau said that, to get recertified, they had to provide more evidence and information than last year, when they just provided the basics of Campus Closet. Timmreck said the topics change every year to get Campus Closet recertified.

Timmreck went to internationals last year and the advice she would give Wirgau and Smith is to practice for their presentation before the judges and be prepared before making the trip.

“That way, when you’re there, you can more experience it than have to be worried,” Timmreck said.

Wirgau said she’s excited to go internationals and excited for the experience of presenting something that she normally wouldn’t present. Smith said it’s going to be fun, but a little nerve-racking.

Timmreck is running for a state officer position at the state competition in March. She went to a screening in the beginning of February in Lansing, where she gave a two-minute speech and completed an interview. She had to do a team-building exercise and she and 13 individuals were picked to run for state officer positions at the state competition.

At the state competition, Timmreck will be campaigning in front of voting delegates. After that, she has to give a two-minute speech in front of 8,000 people.

“It’s definitely going to be a little more nerve-racking,” she said. “I’ve talked in front of our school before at assemblies. I’ve talked in front of judges, and things all the time, and, when I went to the screening, I did a speech. I think it will be fine, but there’s obviously going to be more nerves involved.”

When all the speeches are done, the voting delegates will vote for officers, so Timmreck will find out on March 10 whether or not she’s a state officer.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.