The North Lake Tahoe-Truckee Leadership Program completed its 12th year with a graduation celebration on May 28 at the North Tahoe Event Center.

The program creates an opportunity for potential leaders to broaden their understanding of the region and its issues, challenges and opportunities, while honing and developing their leadership skills.

Since 2004, the program has graduated over 265 individuals.

As part of the five-month program, participants work on Action Plans designed to enhance some aspect of local community life.

These Action Plans are intended to provide the framework to allow for real-world changes in the community.

Through interviews, surveys and research, teams developed a program rationale, a needs assessment, proposed budget, timeline, community collaborations and promotional packet.

The results of these projects were presented during the final day workshop. The projects were: Truckee Roundhouse Makerspace, We R Tahoe, Reside Guide, Every 2nd Counts, Truckee Tahoe Non Profit Directory, and Leave No Trace.

Several of these projects are part of larger programs that are already making a positive impact on our community.

After presentations, class members and guests enjoyed a motivational talk from Pam Hobday.

This past year has been exciting for the North Lake Tahoe-Truckee Leadership Program. We were pleased to be named NLTRA's Non-Profit of the Year for our work toward improving the community. Also, the number of applicants for the latest class far exceeded our maximum capacity.

Sponsors and location hosts of the 2015 Leadership Program included Wells Fargo Bank, Sierra Sun, Rotary Club of Truckee, North Tahoe Event Center (NTPUD), Truckee Tahoe Airport, Tahoe City PUD, town of Truckee and Sierra Nevada College.

Scholarships were generously funded by the Rotary Club of Tahoe City, Kiwanis Club of North Lake Tahoe, Sustainable Community Advocates, Soroptimist International of Truckee Donner, Duggan & Duggan, Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce, and Vail Resorts EchoPromise.

This article was submitted by the North Lake Tahoe-Truckee Leadership Program. Information about the program, sponsorships and scholarship support can be found on TahoeTruckeeLeadership.com.