| August 1, 2019 -- July was conference month for our Youth Grangers. We were the host state this year for the Northeast Youth Conference held July 12-14 at UConn in Storrs. Five youth from Connecticut attended the conference this year and competed in the Grange Baseball and Public Speaking contest.
Youth Winners: Angelina DeDominicis, 2nd Prepared Speech; Kayla Michaud, 3rd Impromptu Speech.
Adult Winner: Michelle DeDominicis, 1st in both impromptu and prepared speech.
Friday night we all checked in and had a chance to gather with others, play some badminton and prepare for the weekend. It was a quiet night but the rest of the weekend kept us busy. Saturday, National Grange Youth Leadership presented a workshop on “Bridging the Generational Divide,” and we all got to work through scenarios where we could use our talents to help get our ideas across and organize our ideas. After lunch we spent the afternoon competing. Grange baseball was exciting no matter if you were a participant or a spectator. Congratulations to Evelyn Dexter and Jaimie Cameron, who helped propel their team to first place in baseball.
The theme for the weekend was: “Finding Our Hero Self” and on Saturday night participants were asked to do just that. We identified who we would be if we were a hero, make a cape because you can’t be a super hero without a cape and then form alliances with others to come up with a plan for how you were going to help the community. Some teams made videos, others presented a plan, and one group even sang their own theme song. It was a lot of fun and everyone stepped up their game and tried something new, be it Grange Baseball or participating in an exhibition drill team. They did a spectacular job or just one night of practice and many are looking forward to organizing one for next year.
Now that weekend is over, the next endeavor I will be taking on as Youth Director is to get out to the Granges. Will write more about that in the next Granger.
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