| May 26, 2012 -- The 2012 Northeast Youth Conference will be held on Friday, July 13, 2012 to Sunday, July 15, 2012 at the Eastern States Exposition (also known as the “Big E”) Fairgrounds in West Springfield, Massachusetts, hosted by the Connecticut State Grange.
We have a lot of fun activities planned for everyone. Something new this year will be the “Spirit Stick”. Connecticut First Lady, Jody Ann Cameron and her father were gracious enough to make this beautiful Spirit Stick. The concept behind this is to see which Junior/Youth State Grange has the most Grange Spirit. It can be by all wearing the same t-shirts that promote the Youth/Junior Program or it can be sharing with other states what you do to get the word out about Grange. Three (3) Judges will be picked by the Host State (Connecticut) and only those three people and I will know that they are the Judges. So you will never know until Sunday who the judges are until they are revealed. With that said, you have to be on high alert at all times during the weekend because you never know who will be watching. On Sunday, the Spirit Stick will be awarded to the State that showed the most Grange Spirit. They will be able to keep the Spirit Stick for one year (along with the bragging rights!) and will have to bring the Spirit Stick the following year to the conference where it will again be awarded to the State that has the most Grange Spirit. Use your imaginations on how you can show your Grange Spirit.
Friday night will kick off with registration from 4:30 to 6:30. If you think you will not be able to be there by then, please contact us. We will be having a pizza party and movie.
Saturday will be our competitions in the morning and then in the afternoon we will visit the Springfield Museums (visit www.springfieldmuseums.org for a sneak peak) and will have lunch there also. After this, back to the Fairgrounds for a little cleaning up at the New England Grange Building which will be followed by our banquet and awards. Afterwards, the Youth of Connecticut will be in charge of entertainment which I am sure will be a lot of fun.
Sunday will start off by breakfast and then our Inspirational Service. Afterwards, time to pack up and then the Drill Competitions and awarding of the Spirit Stick.
With regard to the competitions, please let me know as soon as possible if your state will have anyone entering any competitions. We will also need a list of their names along with the category of their talent. We need this so that we are all set up for that day and everything runs smoothly.
If anyone has any questions or needs more information, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached by email atyouth@ctstategrange.org or by phone at (home) 203-238-1510 or (cell) 203-868-8712. All of the forms and complete information on the contests are available on the Downloads page of the Connecticut State Grange website: www.ctstategrange.org/Downloads.
Connecticut Junior/Youth and the Connecticut State Grange look forward to having you as our guests at the Eastern States Exposition and look forward to a fun filled weekend. |
