Cultural Celebration Preparations

FYI:  This is very lengthy.  It is more of a journal entry for me than a blog post.

Back in February I was called to be the Young Women's president.  A couple of weeks after being called, I started getting emails about a cultural celebration to celebrate the Kansas City Temple dedication in May.  Tucker, Ilah and I (along with many of our stake's youth and leaders) attended a fireside- broadcast from Kansas City- where the cultural celebration committee "pumped us up" about registering for this once in a lifetime event.  Several leaders whipped out their iPhones and/or iPads and started registering youth right after the closing prayer.  I was feeling a little overwhelmed, wondering how it would all come together, thankful I wasn't part of the committee, but still worried about what my role would be in it.

As soon as we returned home, Tucker got on the computer and registered himself not only to participate, but also hoping to be involved in the special choir.  Ilah was on another computer registering herself. 

At our next activity, the YM president, Bro. Stuart, informed me that all of the young men had registered from our ward - even the less actives.  I must have asked him how he knew or something because I found out that he had called each boy who Bro. Stuart hadn't already registered at the fireside to see if they had registered at home - and if they hadn't, he went to their houses...  I started feeling inadequate.  Maybe that is something the YW president is supposed to do - I didn't/still don't know.  I reminded the girls who hadn't registered to register themselves.  I called the less active girls and met with a couple of them, but I didn't feel right about registering them if they didn't seem genuinely enthusiastic about participating.  So I left it up to each girl.

Originally we were told that we would have two practices as a stake - one in March and one in April - before getting together with the whole temple district the day of the performance to practice once.  Crazy, I know!  After the first practice, that turned into two each month and then every Wed. night for 5 weeks in a row.  Keep in mind that we have to travel 1/2 hour to get to the practices... some wards have to travel an hour and a half.  AND these practices are on school nights beginning at 5:30 and lasting until 8:30.  Even with our half hour commute, we would end up getting home close to 10pm after dropping our van load off.  But the youth are amazing!  No one complained.  The kids came to learn and practice.  There were so many youth that every seat in the chapel was filled, including seats on the stand and many more standing out into the halls.  The youth committee traveled to stakes on different days.  They were with us on Wednesdays. ( I cannot sing their praises enough - what an amazing group of people!  How they managed to do everything they did is beyond me.  I am so grateful that they were willing to do it.  My heart is full of love for them. ) They split our practices into two groups - one group would be in the chapel practicing the songs, and the other group would be in the cultural hall practicing the dances.  Every single practice I shed tears.  Even as I think about it now my eyes are welling up. The practices were the spiritual highlight of my week.  It usually hit me as they were singing "We Believe" or watching them practice their 'dance' to "Rise Up", but there were times when I teared up watching them practice "Popcorn" or "Arise" - they just radiated goodness, happiness, and joy.  How did I get so lucky to be a part of this?

As May inched closer and closer, I started getting multiple emails daily.  I would wake up in the morning and check several emails... stuff forwarded from the Bishop, the Stake YW presidency, the cultural committee, Brother Stuart, and parents - noting changes and trying to make arrangements. After school I would do the same thing.  Honestly, it was a logistic nightmare.  Brother Stuart and I were having a hard time finding enough drivers, figuring out how we were going to leave before school was out, figuring out who we would stay with, what about the food, gathering medical permission slips and media release forms, making sure we had collected enough "debris" for the Rise Up piece., etc. etc.  And this was all happening at the same time as the temple open house (where Mike and I had the opportunity to be tour guides), a special fireside for all of the YW in the temple district in the Stake Center across from the temple the tour of the temple including the bride's room, end of the year school stuff (including prom), and Ilah's birthday.  I think we were in Kansas City at some point during 3 of 4 weeks of April and then the first weekend of May.

Wednesday, May 2nd we had one last practice/meeting as a ward.  It reminded me of a primary program practice.  Let's just say, the youth usually did so much better.  All I could do was laugh and say that I knew everything would come together... I didn't know how it all would, but I knew it would.

Friday, May 4th, I went to school with my stomach in knots.  I some how managed to teach until 1:30.  My amazing teaching partner/friend, Kim Ghumm offered to keep both classes for the rest of the day.  When I got home, Tucker was already here.  He figured out how to put the luggage carrier on the van for me and vacuumed it out.  Then we loaded up and drove over to Subway for our sack lunches.  (We hadn't had time to actually make any.)  While we were there we ran into Ilah who had been picked up from school by our wonderful friends the Belnaps.  (They were getting Subway too!)  Then we met at the SMB Bank parking lot at Stone's Corner where we loaded everyone up, prayed, and headed to Kansas City.

Our van leaves a lot to be desired, but there weren't any other affordable options... so the poor crew that rode with me, suffered with lukewarm 'air conditioning'.  At one point we stopped at a gas station, after using the restrooms we all just stood there not wanted to get back into the van.  But we did and eventually made it to the Muni in downtown Kansas City.

Due to the huge number of youth participating (they were anticipating 1500, but it ended up being 3000), there wasn't a lot of extra room for leaders.  So that meant only 1 leader per ward.  Brother Stuart took on that role since he didn't have children participating.  He didn't get to watch the celebration because he was behind the scenes the whole time getting our kids where they needed to be, etc.  So when we got to the Muni, we weren't supposed to go in with the youth so I dropped them off, and they followed the sea of youth into the building.  However, one of the girls called and said they needed their performance clothes so I gathered up the stuff and walked it down there.  You can not imagine the chaos that I walked into.  Kids EVERYWHERE - loud music playing - kids yelling trying to talk to others - constant movement - and leaders looking perplexed.  It reminded me of an ant hill after it gets smashed... confusion.  I miraculously found our group and handed off the clothes. Then I said a prayer as I left the building.

When I went to pick up the kids after their tour of the facility and fireside, I found 15 happy girls so excited for the following day.  I heard about Kenneth Cope singing and the Polynesians performing for them.  Full of giddy energy, they serenaded me while we walked a few blocks to where the cars were parked.

We drove about a half hour to the Liberty area where our host homes were located.  When we got to the first stop, I could NOT get the stupid luggage carrier open.  I called Mike, almost in tears (it was past my bed time... almost 11pm), but he couldn't walk me through it.  In frustration, I asked him if I could just rip it off.  Luckily, the dad from the host home came out and saved the day.  Our host families were so kind and thoughtful.  I slept on the most comfortable bed!  5:00am came much too quickly.  We had to pick everyone up and make it to the Muni by 6:30am. 

Saturday, May 5th - next post.