International Year of Youth Culmination Celebration at United Nations

Earlier this month my 15 year old daughter Eleanor was lucky enough to be selected as a delegate to the International Year of Youth Culmination Celebration at the United Nations.  She was thrilled to be picked to go to this conference, and excited to visit New York City.  Although she was born in New York state and has lived here her whole life, she had never been to New York City before.

The conference consisted of two parts, in the morning they met at the U.N. building and listened to lots of speakers, including a number of young girls who have done amazing community service projects.  Then in the afternoon they went to the French Institute and participated in some service projects, such as designing these bags, which the girls decorated and then filled with school supplies for under privileged children.  Overall the conference was very inspiring for Eleanor.  So that you can see how awesome it was here is her description of the conference from her personal blog (which I edited only to fix spelling.)

When I got to the UN the line to go through security was huge. we waited and waited. Mom took pictures of everything. It was amazing. Security was pretty boring just people wearing bullet proof vests. Then after I checked in, abandoned Mom and walked for what seemed like ever I arrived in the ECOSOC Chamber! Where everyone who means anything goes! I was THERE! THERE where the president had sat, where ambassadors from like every country go to make decisions that impacts life as we know it. Words cannot describe it. I was sitting in Zimbabwe’s seat (Which was TOTALLY cool!) but then there was an issue and I got moved to Gabon. (Which was totally ok because it’s still Africa and Elephants live in Gabon. Awesome.)

The place next to me was France. GOSH I WANTED FRANCE! I was so jealous! The girl who was sitting there was really nice so we talked then Monique Coleman came out (An actress from High School Musical) I immediately knew who she was. Then lots of inspirational people came out and talked, and a girl (Caroline Sunshine) from the Disney Channel show Shake It Up came out. She’s my favorite character on the show, so that was reallllllly cool. Then the last girl who came up was the best.

Her name was Vivian (I totally love that name, by the way) She is the sole provider for her 13 siblings. (Her mother died, leaving her the oldest child with no Aunts or Uncles to help her.) She went to college and made it work. She’s from South Africa. She’s only like 20. She was the best speaker hands down.

Then we went to the French Institute. (Awesome) we took a bus. I saw this building where when I looked out the window I couldn’t see the top. It was that huge. It was so awesome. Once we arrived we ate lunch we went to all these booths where you did different things. Packed backpacks for kids in Africa, made tote bags and napkins for children, got books, wrote letters, and talked to editors. It was lots of fun.