Piggybacking off our President’s last post, I’ll admit I had a pretty charmed childhood. I always had the staples (food/water, clothes, shelter) and I was very lucky to live in a two parent family with a stay at home mom, a dad with a stable, well-paid job, and a sister who is now my best friend. We took regular family vacations and had lots of friends and extended family to keep us company along the way. Hey, it takes a village, right? I was loved, supported, and aside from the normal teen year dramas, growing up for me was a pretty fun experience.

I had a life changing experience in the fall of 2008, when I was suckered into chaperoning my first Kiwanis International Key Leader weekend at Camp Weaver. Since then, I’ve participated in Key Leader weekends at Camp Wiley and at Camp Caraway – and enjoyed suckering others to come along for the ride. For those that don’t know, Key Leader is a student/facilitator led weekend retreat that inspires young people to achieve great things through service leadership. The retreat centers on the core values of integrity, growth, respect, building community and the pursuit of excellence.

I’m continually humbled and inspired meeting the teens during these weekends. Teens like Dana, valedictorian of her class, unsure if she would apply for college until we talked to her about scholarships and ways to overcome financial obstacles (and I may be guilty of confirming her belief that App State is the best college ever). Teens like Steve, so scared of failing that he wouldn’t even try some if the icebreaker challenges – that is until I jumped in like an idiot and tried - and failed, three times, mind you - before accomplishing the task myself. I’ve met “privileged” teens, “at risk” teens, teens that had babies of their own – and despite all their differences, I’ve watched as each one has grown and walked away with a common set of leadership skills and core values that benefit them for years to come. You simply cannot walk out of a weekend like that unchanged!

OK, I’m known to be long winded when I am passionate about something (obviously, see above), but I’ve never been one to text my vote (sorry, Seacrest), forward the chain emails (you can blame me if your wish didn’t come true), or enlist every soul I know to “get out the vote” – until now.

Since its inception in 2005, Kiwanis International’s Key Leader has held 226 Key Leader weekends, impacting 11,000 teens in 38 US states, 4 Canadian provinces and 4 other countries. And it’s time to make a bigger impact! Chase is giving away $5 million to various charities and all you have to do is simply vote for your favorite nonprofit and then get friends and others on Facebook to do the same.

The Kiwanis International Foundation already earned $25K and became a finalist in the campaign and starting Friday, January 15th through Friday January 22nd, YOU can help the Foundation win $1M just by voting! Think about it - $1M in grant money will allow the program’s impact to at double over the next three years, allowing 11,500 more Key Leaders to Take the Lead and impact their communities.

Please vote (http://facebook.com/kiwanis) and encourage others to do the same. As you know, if you don't forward this to 50 people within the next 5 minutes, our wish won’t come true!