Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Giving from the Heart: Bobbi Sheets, a lifelong Campbell resident, has been a volunteer with the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership program for the past 13 years. The program is aimed at high school sophmores who demonstrate potential leadership skills. Two of Sheets' grandchildren have gone through the program, with the third planning to do the same.
Public Citizen
Resident receives award for HOBY work
By Moryt Milo
Bobbi Sheets grew up in a world that stressed the importance of volunteering, and she credits it all to her mother, Bertha Jensen.
"This was the atmosphere I lived in," she said.
Sheets, a mother of four, who graduated from Campbell High School in 1944 and grew up harvesting summer crops of apricots and prunes, has devoted the last 13 years of her life to the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) program.
The 44-year-old international program was created to help develop and motivate high school sophomores recognize their potential leadership skills.
Sheets volunteers her time in the northern California region, where she spends nine months a year helping to organize the annual HOBY seminar at Mission Springs Christian Camp Ground in Scotts Valley.
The annual event brings 200 student ambassadors, who listen to a diverse group of speakers. Some are entrepreneurs and volunteers, others work in the fields of government and education, but all the speakers participating help to illustrate the different areas of leadership.
"Since the program is designed for sophomores, it gives them time to consider their futures," Sheets said. "The program teaches students how to think instead of what to think."
After the students leave the seminar many return to their schools and become involved in student government or in social clubs.
On a local level, Sheets helps promote the program in Campbell.
Through her membership in the Campbell Chapter of the Country Woman's Club, she spearheads the organization's mailing of HOBY applications to all the high schools in the Campbell Union High School District.
Each school selects one student, but the process varies from school to school, Sheets said. At Westmont High School, a student is selected after participating in an essay contest whose topic is leadership.
Because of her relentless efforts in promoting the HOBY program and her lifelong passion for volunteering, she was recently nominated by the San Francisco chapter of The Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a humanitarian award.
Her husband, Kenneth, a former FBI agent, and Sheets are members of the San Francisco chapter.
"[Someone from the] chapter called and said, 'You are quite a volunteer spirit so we are going to submit your name,' " she said.
In March, the Western region of the society called to notify Sheets she had won the award and would receive a $2,000 check for the HOBY program.
This recognition is just a small part of Sheet's long history working with youth of all ages.
For 24 years Sheets worked as a preschool teacher, an educational calling she accepted because of her mother's influence.
"Although my mother didn't go to school beyond the eighth grade, she wanted all her children to go to college and get a degree," Sheets said.
Even with a limited education, Sheet's mother became president of her children's grade school home club.
"She was so afraid she would misspell a word or embarrass her family when she spoke publicly," Sheets said. "But it never stopped her."
Campbell, California
