Midland Area, November 18-19

Watch clips from the Midland Onsite!

OnSite Report

For our final and biggest Onsite of the year, we were excited to be working with Midland Christian School, Calvary Baptist Academy, and the CHEMinistry home school group. Our first program in Midland was two years ago, and we were thrilled to be invited back for a repeat performance. None of these are large enough to host an onsite by themselves, so it is especially gratifying to see the collaborative effort.

Everyone rolled out the red carpet for us. We were greeted by the school marquis, which featured SSI. The staff, teachers and parents were going the extra mile to help make this a meaningful experience for the students. And judging from the enthusiastic response, we saw the fruit of our labor in the student’s hard work and excellent speeches during the final debate on the House Floor.

Representative Jim Stamas was able to attend the morning Committee Hearing and the final Legislative Session, and, in my opinion, offered the best observation of the evening when he said, “I was amazed by the student speeches and realized that I have a lot to learn. I felt like I should be taking notes.”

As always, we were blessed by the participation of a great group of local community and business leaders serving as “VIP’s” for our Committee Hearings. Joining State Representative Jim Stamas were former State Representatives John Moolenaar and Jim McNutt. All of them remarked that SSI was a much-needed and wonderful program for high school students. In addition, Kristina Cherniauski, one of our current Ambassador League Agents, spent both days assisting us with the administrative details of the program and volunteered to be one of our “Lobbyists” as well. She did a fantastic job! Thanks Kristina!

One of the moms who spent both days observing said, “I just wish there had been a program like SSI when I was in high school.” And when asked about SSI, her nine year old daughter said, “I can’t wait to do this when I am old enough.”

I want to thank everyone who helped make this an outstanding program: Eric VanDerhoof and Gary Lyvere along with the rest of the folks at Midland Christian, Dan Forbes from Calvary Baptist, and Sarah Hickman from CHEMinistry. What a joy to work with you all! Also, special thanks to John Moolenaar, John Pafford and Marvin & Barb Henry for helping with the financial underwriting, and Steve Coston from 103.1 FM WGDN for letting us use his sound system for the final debate.

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