Suwannee High student starts Live Oak Club America chapter – Turning Point USA
L-R: Hunter Wainwright, Brooklyn Long and Julia Wainwright each took turns speaking at the first Live Oak Club America meeting. -SVT Photo by Tami Stevenson
By Tami Stevenson
Suwannee High School Junior Brooklyn Long has always had a love for America. She began listening to Charlie Kirk’s Podcasts with her parents in 2020.
“We all became fast fans of his, admiring his courage and clarity on current events,” said her mother, Ashley Long.
Brooklyn Long had wanted to start a local Club America chapter since she began high school.
“After Charlie’s assassination in September,” her mother said, “it gave her the courage and boldness to move forward and follow through with starting the club. Her goal is simply to share her love and appreciation of our great nation with her local community.”
Long submitted an application to the organization and was approved for a community chapter. Their first meeting was held Monday, November 3, 2025, at Live Oak City Hall.
The Turning Point organization supplied them with information and guidelines for the chapter. Officers for the club were established and are: President Brooklyn Long, Vice President Alexi Pack, Secretary Masden Graham, Treasurer Hunter Wainwright and Co-Secretary Julia Wainwright.
Their mission is to identify, educate, train and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government.
They had a series of discussion questions like, “What do you think sets America apart from other countries? What makes us exceptional?”
Answers were open to the floor. The first to respond was Brooklyn’s younger brother, who proudly stood up and said, “We love God and we always have and that’s why we are an exception to the world.”
They presented a video with an outsider’s view on America, a man from Australia, Nick Adams, from the Prager University Foundation. He said an American friend once said to him that sometimes it takes someone on the outside to remind us what we’re like on the inside.
Adams loves his country and its long standing alliance with America, but according to him, Australia has not achieved what America has, no country has.
What makes America different? There are many answers, he said, but to him, it was giving its citizens the chance to fail and try, try again. He said that only Americans say that.
According to a Harvard study, most American entrepreneurs fail four times before they succeed. Success takes timing and hard work and many other factors, but to succeed you must be given the chance to fail. And you must accept responsibility if you do. “I love that about Americans,” Adams stated. “Nowhere else are you allowed to take entrepreneurial risks. Talk to someone who’s tried to start a small business in Germany or Brazil and you’ll see what I mean. From the outside looking in, I can only admire this, and I’m not the only one.”
He added that with all of America’s wealth, instead of keeping that wealth for themselves, America has done the opposite. He said America has been the most selfless nation in the history of the world. No matter where the calamity is America raises millions of dollars almost instantly to send food, clothing and supplies to people in distress they don’t know and will never meet.
Another question opened for discussion: “Are you proud do be an American? Do you think most people your age are?”
Brooklyn Long answered, “Yes, I’m proud to be an American, I love that I have the freedoms that we have here and that I’m able to do this club, like I said before, it’s very special and I love that.” She believes the number of people her age that are proud to be an American is split down the middle.
Some of the adults also offered heartfelt testimonies of their veteran experiences and what made them proud to be Americans.
They talked about 9-11 and the overwhelming response by the American people to risk their lives to save others. Something good came out of the tragedy as hundreds of thousands of Americans enlisted in the Armed Forces following the 9-11 attack.
Brooklyn stated at the meeting she liked the idea of having the meetings outside of school grounds, hoping it would encourage home-schooled students and adults to attend.
If this first meeting has any bearing on how future meetings will go, she was right. There were seventy-one in attendance.
At the end of the meeting, as a community service activity, they made cards for veterans.
The next meeting is scheduled for December 1st at Live Oak City Hall. Find them on Instagram at @liveoaks_clubamerica or email
Hunter Wainwright took the microphone around for people who wanted to comment during the meeting. -SVT Photo by Tami Stevenson
