As the 2018 Youth Tour wrapped I reflected on the experience I had the year before as a chaperone for the Kansas delegation. It was something I'll remember for a long time to come and honestly can say I can't wait to see what some of these kiddos go on to do.
The below post was something I wrote for work publications, so I thought I would share it here, as well. Brent is a co-worker at FreeState as the Director of IT - and one fun dude!
Five Things We Learned on Youth Tour
By Sarah Farlee and Brent Edgecomb
2017 Youth Tour Chaperones
2017 Youth Tour Chaperones
When we started our adventure in Topeka with these 40 delegates, we will have to admit there were a few fleeting moments of "what did we do?"
Edgecomb, Williams, Staatz, Farlee
We had both been to Washington, D.C. before, but not with precious cargo like this in tow. We can honestly say that this was a trip that taught us a lot about ourselves, too. Here are the five things we learned while chaperoning.
1. Sleep is overrated Being a chaperone means running on fumes at times, but so do the delegates. It was far more fun to chat away at bed checks than it was just to hit the hay at the end of the night. That's when you got to learn about their personalities and answer questions about life and truly get to know these young leaders. Besides, the bus rides were ideal for catching a cat nap.
2. Kansas Hawaii delegates can rock a dance floor There were multiple opportunities for delegates to “bust a move” and they did just that. Not only did they enjoy a riverboat dinner and dance cruise they also learned how to dance 18th-century style. Some delegates brought it to the dance floor, and others showed their moves all. Week. Long.
3. You can’t stump the Senator Our delegates were fortunate enough to meet five of the six elected representatives in Washington, D.C. A uniquely engaging meeting involved Senator Jerry Moran. Delegates were encouraged to try to "stump the senator" geographically. We had zero places he had not heard of, and the visitation rate to these locations was about 95 percent. We don't know who had more fun during that meeting, the delegates or the senator?
4. Pentagon Trivia Every delegate should be able to tell you how many bathrooms are in the Pentagon. Answer? 284. Every day we passed the Pentagon and every day we shared odd facts or basic trivia about the iconic building. By the way, there are no elevators in the Pentagon, and it is 17.5 miles long, but only takes minutes to get from one side to the other due to the intricately designed corridors and some slick engineering.
5. You do form bonds. We met kids interested in politics, science and engineering, music, and so much more. We didn't expect to form the bonds we did with some of the delegates but now can honestly say we're rooting for each one of these delegates as they begin to navigate life. The decisions they'll be making over the next year will shape their lives for the future, and it's so exciting to see what some of these kids go out and do.
Cooperatives across the state shared their best young members with us, and we’re fortunate for that opportunity. We’d like to say thank you to those cooperatives for sharing your young leaders with us for a week. The Youth Tour is a trip of a lifetime for those selected to attend this journey, but we never expected that to be true for chaperones, too.
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