United We Serve

I am currently at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in San Francisco, attending as the Youth Commissioner of the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service. I got in Sunday and have already had two days of meeting new people, learning and listening about how we can all collaborate better to use service as a strategy to address our communities' biggest needs.
Last night's opening session included speakers Arnold Schwarzenneger, Arianna Huffington, Maria Shriver, and yes Matthew McConaghy. (When his name was called I was in the lobby and witnessed every woman in the building rushing to the stage, including me). Oh yeah, and another big speaker, Michelle Obama, who officially launched President Obama's United We Serve initiative. The Initiative starts now and runs through September 11, which was declared a National Holiday in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. Michelle spoke to how this summer is really just a warm up to when on September 11 we will recommit to making service a part of our lives daily.

Also, we had two music performing acts including Bon Jovi and Chaka Khan. It was a fun, yet exhausting day and most impressively great to have so many celebrities in the room speaking to the importance of service. Voluntering is actually cool now (or so I'm telling myself).