We arrived, all anxious and spirited for camp and enjoyed a great program on the green with our fellow campers as we met people that came as far away as Georgia for these couple of days. That first night we were moved by the fast paced talker Mike Smith. He started off by telling us that “your in charge of your attitude” and that “Leadership is making mistakes, admitting them and learning from them.” Mike went on and told us that we need to be in the “Change Business” if you want something. Then he got more personal about changing lives on campus and he told us that it started with Student Government. He went on and declared that we need to be in the “People Business Too.” Lastly he said if you want to change anything on campus in business or in the world around us it starts with a “smile” then you will need to “Step up to Do it!”
The next day, we all had to recover from Mike Smith and that killer Dance we attended at UCSB. The morning started off with my council, (council 15) leading program on the green to get everyone’s body moving after a long first day. We introduced our dance for the Flash Mob video which was to “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction. In our council we had a huge debate on the song choice but through the leadership of a few people they took control and gave us options to vote on and be able to tell a story as well. That night we heard from our second speaker, Matt McFayden. He was an Aussie and everyone giggled over his accent and how he said certain words. The crowd just loved him and would not stop clapping after every word he said. But as he told us his stories of being on dangerous adventures to the north pole and the arctic he reminded us that we need to “Cherish your Friends.” His reason was simple because when you cherish your friend you can look to the right and left and there will always be someone their for you. At the end of the night our Student Government group discussed some goals for our senior year. Some of them included a winter formal and a link crew and communicating better with the student body.
Our third day came very fast. This day my council started to film for the Flash mob. We had to film each council expressing a character trait a leader would use then at the end would be the video of the whole camp dancing to One Direction. That night we were inspired by a new speaker that no one had heard of before. Her name was Harriet Turk from the South and yes she had an accent that the crowd roared too. Her topic focused on “shedding your invisible costume and being yourself!” She went on by explaining that believing in yourself does not always have a positive outcome. The crowd was quiet. Harriet continued and said that you need to “Get up and get in the Game regardless of how you Look!” But before that “you need to honor and respect you before you honor and respect each other.” After those serious words she got the crowd going by saying “when people start to put you down tell them it ain’t your DREAM!” As she rattled up the whole crowd she affirmed with us that you need to plan from your “Heart not the Mind.” Her last remark was People are watching what you DO rather than what you Say!” Harriet than got a huge round of applause and as she exited the stage the talent show was on! This years talent featured solos, duets and even dance crew from different schools. Our camp director Ron reminded us that this talent show had a lot of shirts coming off and how it should not happen when we headed over to our last dance in a courtyard under the famous UCSB tower. On our last day, we reflected and remembered our experiences from the last few days of camp.
Daniel Lacey 
Heyyy! I just googled my name to see what would come up, and this was one thing I found! Thank you so much! I really appreciate you including me!! I had so much fun at CADA! 🙂
Thank You for Inspiring young people to be themselves every single day no matter the circumstance.