Update! It's been more than a week (or two or three) since Tioga, I know.. but it's been busy. For the record, I am so thrilled that I got to see all of your fresh new excited faces there-- you really gave me the jumpstart I needed to go into the 2nd part of the year with new enthusiasm, and I hope I (and others) did the same for you.

Today I woke up at 6am (why Kiwanians schedule breakfast meetings, I'll never know. I guess it's something called the real world) -- and dragged myself out of bed to the Kenner North Kiwanis meeting, where I was the guestspeaker. I spoke about Kiwanis Family, and our Key to College and Kiwanis Career Contacts program, and about how much K-Family means to us. The meeting was being run by Key Clubbers from Crescent City and John Curtis, and Builders Club from John Curtis and Jefferson Community School... so it was really really fun. We did the chicken dance! Anyways, the meeting rocked.. and afterwards, I got invited to go do the service project/field trip with the Builders Club. It rocked! We went and read and played Bingo with the Alzheimer patients at East Jefferson Adult Day Center. It's not often I get to do service anymore (because of traveling around the district and governor-ish duties).. but man, did I miss it. And service with other sponsored youth? How refreshing! I can't tell you how fun it was to sing r&b songs with a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds to senior citizens who were loving it.

Anyways.. the message of the day is--- I know we're all busy, and we've all got mid-terms, and we're all trying to raise money for Christmas presents, and preparing to see our families for the holidays and we're TOTALLY STRESSED OUT )(#*%)(@#%.... and sometimes it feels like we can't do anything else or we'll completely burst--- but a lot of the times.. that little bit of service is exactly what you need to help the lives of those less fortunate than you. Really refreshes you, while putting it all into perspective.

On a business note-- scholarships are in... Alison mailed them to your clubs... please be on the lookout. Every year, 4/4 scholarships are awarded to the 4 people that applied for them (sometimes one person gets 2 scholarships because only 1-2 people apply).. so APPLY! It takes awhile, but two hours of work for $500 means you've made $250 an hour. Can't beat that!

I'll be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning with Bic-like-the-pen-LTG-Nguyen and miss Treasure Alison... to go to Eagle Ridge (somewhere outside of Jackson, MS) for our board meeting! Hopefully it will go well, and we'll post all about it to you when we get back (even if it does take us a couple of weeks to do so):)

Shoutout to Louisiana Tech for their awesome new website.. check it out! There's a link to it on the District Website