Church Youth Conference May 28-30

As the leader over the 16-17 year old girls at our church, I was asked to be a chaperon for our Youth Conference this year. The conference involved youth from our entire Castle Rock Stake which included about 200 kids, 14-17 years old and adult leaders. Talk about lots of energy and fun! We have such a wonderful group of kids!

The conference was all day from 8:00am to 11:30pm on Thursday, Friday and 1/2 day Saturday. On Thursday we rented out the Douglas County Fairgrounds and had fun classes, team building experiences, games, lunch, dinner and a huge LOUD dance with a DJ. It was a crazy day but lots of fun.

That night, after the dance, 6 girls from my group, came and spent the night at my house and in the morning, I provided breakfast and took them back to the next day's activity. All 200 kids were divided that way and numerous host families provided a place for them to spend the 2 nights, breakfast and transportation back to that day's activities. It was such an organized effort to keep all the kids and their stuff straight and busy for those 3 days.

Here's a picture of the girl's I had at my house (one girl spent that night at her own home) and then some pictures of the group we were in charge of during all the activities.

We had 10 young women and 9 young men in our group. David Harp was my co-partner and watched over the boys in our group. We had a GREAT group!!! In keeping with our theme -- Being a Light and an Example -- our group were the Green Super Novas -- there were Sunbeams, Moonbeams, Light Savers, StarLight, Glow Worms, etc. Every group was assigned a "Light" name and a color. Kelsey was in my group but Jacob, being younger, was in another group and I didn't really see much of him until Friday when we did the service project.

A great crazy partner to help keep the kids focused. His wife was also a leader.

Some pictures around the Fair Grounds on Thursday.

A cool "Velcro" suit and wall! You suit up, run and jump high and stick to the Velcro wall. Christine was an expert at the backward flip and stick!

Kelsey on the slide race and at tug-o-war!

The high-light of the conference (in my opinion) was our Friday Service Project. Here are the Super Novas and part of another group ready to build fences! Miles and miles of them -- all with post holes dug 2 feet deep -- 16 feet apart -- and with thee strands of wire connecting them. I told my girls that when their dates asks them what they did this summer they can say they worked on a horse ranch putting up fences -- IMPRESSIVE!

We drove the kids out to the Coyote Canyon Ranch which is just about a half hour from the fairgrounds and spent 7 hours building fences and corrals on 107 acres of their beautiful property.

A group called "Horse Power" helps to run the Coyote Canyon Ranch and provides therapeutic horse-back riding to handicapped children. It was a fantastic project for a group our size and one that touched every one's hearts deeply, that day. I don't think many of those kids or leaders have ever worked so hard!

I spoke to one of the owners to thank him for letting us come and serve him and his organization and this big old cowboy was totally choked up and speechless. We did more work before noon that they had anticipated us doing the whole day. He said that we had NO IDEA of the impact our service provided his organization. What we did that day, they would not have been able to accomplish for another 10 years. Multiply 200+ people times $15.00 or more per hour times 7 hours and you have a LOT of free labor!

They were so grateful and it was so worthwhile to work hard and see miles and miles of fences as your reward! It was such an unbelievable experience!

Here is the cute cowboy who runs Horse Power with his wife. I told him I was so happy that he wasn't running around the ranch in an "I Love Newport Beach" tee-shirt and flip-flops. He was a real, humble, sweetheart of a cowboy!

Our kids hard at work!

Lunchtime was a big hit!

A day not soon to be forgotten!

After the service project, we went back to the Fair Grounds for dinner and then to the Castle Rock Rec Center for swimming, games, Karaoke, sundaes, etc. How they had the energy, I have no idea. Its cute to see the "farmer tans" in this picture. Kelsey is in the front -- pointing at me.

We were all up and out of the house at 8:00am dressed in "Sunday" clothes for a powerful testimony meeting where the kids told of the experiences they had and how it touched their hearts. Such a wonderful 3 days with some wonderful, hopeful, energetic youth! I'm so grateful to have shared the experience with them.