Young Americans

 Every three years Norfolk Catholic hosts the Young Americans.  This is a clinic that involves the arts and encourages all students in grades 3rd-12th to participate.  The students involved spend an intense three days learning songs and dances.  Then at the end of three days, they perform a concert for the public.  Young Americans is a group of individuals that travel around the world teaching students the joy of singing and dancing and proving to kids how much fun the arts are to participate in.  This group is hosted by our Music Booster Group at school and requires so much planning and parent help.  The Young Americans are put up in participants homes from our school.  The food for the event is provided, prepared and served by parents.  I prepared two vegetable dishes, a salad and a dessert for Saturday night's supper. 

 This is the first year that Cara and Erica have been old enough to participate.  The Young American workshop started on Thursday afternoon and concluded on Saturday night with the concert.  The workshop was open to Norfolk Catholic students and other students from Norfolk and surrounding towns.  There were over 200 students participating in the workshop.  Cara and Erica were in the orange and yellow groups.  The high school students were in the blue group.

 The first hour of the concert was a performance of singing and dancing by the Young American staff.  Norfolk Catholic had five graduates perform in this group.  To be a Young American, you must be asked to audition, be accepted, and then be prepared to travel all over the world.  One parent commented that he has traveled to England, Germany and Los Angeles to watch his daughter perform with Young Americans.

The second half of the show was a performance by the students with a section in which some parents/staff performed.  This Mom performed in that small selection of songs.  The girls were embarrassed that I would participate, but they were also happy that their Mom would perform.  We had to sing and dance also. 

I cannot put into words how to describe the amazing show that these students put on.  It was so awesome and inspiring.  There were many talented students.  Keith and I attended the concert along with both sets of grandparents.  We all thought the show was simply amazing.  Cara has already figured out that if Young Americans to continue to come back every three years that when she is a senior all four of the kids can be in the workshop together.  To have all four of them in the concert would be simply amazing to see, I can't wait!

I don't have photos of the performance because no flash photography was allowed and the lights were turned off.  Plus no video recordings were allowed because the performance was professionally taped. 

Take care,
Michelle