Devotionals by Mallory McCampbell and Sarah McClure

The last activity of the night, before the delegates head off to their delegation meetings and then bed, different delegations perform devotionals to inspire and encourage their fellow delegates. The first night, Massachusetts set the stage of devotionals throughout the week. When asked who was the main person in charge of their devotional, Jonathan Mojica said that Alexis Morin was the one who came up with the idea. He also said the delegation as a whole came together to make it well presented. Mojica said that the colors of their shirts were symbolizing the YMCA core value of caring as well as explaining passion. The shirts faded from red into white. This was to show that caring comes out of having passion for something, but passion is much bolder and stronger. Some people were nervous to present this idea, but others were very excited to be able to show the conference what Massachusetts could bring to the table. Mojica also said “I would like to thank everyone for the attentiveness that they showed during our devotional.”
On Sunday night, Model UN performed a Sesame Street themed skit in Ware Pavilion on honesty. Second year delegate, AJ Horowitz of the Model UN delegation was kind enough to answer our question. He said that Olaniyi Solebo, the previous Secretary General, Kelsey Coolidge, the Deputy Secretary General, and Dan Morris, the incoming Secretary General, were the masterminds behind the script of their skit. “They wrote three scripts, one based on Sesame Street, one based on Pinocchio, and one based on Winnie the Pooh. They emailed everyone in the delegation the rough drafts of the three scripts and then we all voted on them,” Horowitz said. Horowitz also mentioned the advisors had little to no part in the planning or execution of the devotional. The Model UN delegation was assigned their topic (honesty) and performed their skit really well. Each delegate was a different Sesame Street character and told the rest of the conference the importance of honesty from the perspective of their respective characters. Oscar the Grouch, played by Horowitz, confidently told everyone he was very honest because he constantly displayed how he really felt. Horowitz said that they didn’t even practice that much because they didn’t ever see each other before the conference and so were only able to rehearse when they actually got on the Mountain. “We didn’t even know who was going to be who until Saturday night. We practiced once Sunday morning and a couple of times right before we went up,” Horowitz said. Horowitz told us that he thought it went “surprisingly well.” “It was really cool. Afterwards we were in a huddle and people came up and gave us hugs and stuff. I liked knowing that what we did didn’t go unappreciated,” Horowitz said. All in all, the well thought out Model UN devotional was a stupendous success.
On Monday night this week the devotional was presented by the Ohio delegation. The Ohio delegation enjoys bringing new ideas to the Conference on National Affairs. Their devotional was not the normal lecture of one of the YMCA core values. Instead, the presentation of responsibility by the Ohio delegation was a pleasant surprise. They were able to pull together a presentation that was original and like nothing else. Vannessa Wilson was the main coordinator of the devotional for her delegation. When asked the day before how much they had left to get done before they were ready for their presentation, Wilson responded “We still have a lot to get done, but we will be ready when the time comes.” Wilson and the rest of the Ohio delegation were trying to bring the new idea of describing responsibility in stepping. Many other delegates found the presentation very entertaining and amusing. By being able to allow the other CONA delegates to relate on more of a secular term, the Ohio delegation was able to captivate on a unique level. By stepping up to this level they showed that they could take responsibility when given the opportunity to present a core value at this conference.
Tuesday night, July 3rd, the Washington delegation performed a devotional on respect. We interviewed Alex Mech and asked him about the behind the scenes preparation that went into their enlightening performance. “We got together and couldn’t agree on one thing because we all had different ideas. The one thing we did agree on was that we didn’t have to agree with each other to respect each other,” Mech said. They decided that the best way to start was to go around and say what they each individually thought respect was. They ended up deciding that the best way to present it was just for everyone to tell the rest of the conference what their individual thoughts on respect was. “We tried to show respect to each other while we were presenting. Our main goal was to get people thinking,” Mech said. When asked what he gained personally from the experience, Mech told us “I think I always thought of respect as one thing and my own view of it without writing it down. I learned that there are multiple views of respect and I think it is an action rather than a definition.”