Teen wins second straight state youth award

Elijah Sellers is no stranger to receiving recognition for the work he does in his community.

For the second year in a row, Sellers has been named Youth of the Year by the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Carolina.

Each year, the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Carolina selects one exceptional club member from local chapters for the award. Winners are selected based on their leadership and communication skills as well as their achievements in a variety of activities, including entertainment, politics and sports.

Last year, Sellers became the first member in the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tar River Region’s more than half-century history to earn the North Carolina Youth of the Year honor. Sellers will compete in the regional competition in the fall and hopefully move on to the national competition.

The National Youth of the Year serves as both an exemplary ambassador for Boys & Girls Clubs youth and as a strong voice for the country’s young people. The National Youth of the Year is the highest honor a member of the Boys & Girls Clubs can receive.

Sellers hails from Princeville and is one of two sons in a single-parent family. While financially challenged at times, Sellers and his brother had a strong family unit and a mother who saw potential in her children.

His mother, Sheila Cook, signed Sellers up for the Boys & Girls Clubs because she said she knew he was smart and just needed the right environment and encouragement to help him become successful. (Read more)

Tarboro NC – Congrats Elijah Sellers I Have Always Known That You Were Going Places

The Political Agitator’s response: I always knew you were going places because you are a gifted young man. But what is missing here is your religious role because I am familiar with you preaching, I mean speaking in the church when you were around 8 or 9 years old. I believe you could be licensed today to preach the word because you are an awe some messenger and could reach young folk. I know you gets my attention. I am so proud of you. I am so proud of your mom a single parent. Continue to be the young man you are doing some great things and you will go some places.

Elijah Sellers remembers his first day at a Boys & Girls Club in Edgecombe County.

Sellers spoke of that day as being quite a humbling experience.

Sellers, who is one of two sons in a single-parent family, told of coming from a broken home in Princeville and subsequently being in financially struggling family households.

Sellers told of being a traumatized and unsociable youngster.

“And I did not know anybody,” Sellers told the Telegram in a roughly hour-long interview recently. “I didn’t want to talk. And I think God was disappointed in my decisions of lack of trying.”

Sellers said because he did not know anybody, he began running around alone while on the playground and while running, he decided to look behind him.

“As soon as I turned around, I ran into the pole,” Sellers said. “And I chipped my front tooth.

“And then after that, I had no choice but to communicate with staff and get to know people — and at least make an effort to enjoy the Boys & Girls Club,” Sellers said.

Sellers, 16, has been a member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tar River Region going on nine years and has come quite a long way.

Sellers said the key reasons are that he learned it was OK to open up and that he discovered he has a gift of being an effective communicator. (Read more)