An Eventful Weekend

  In the last five days I've seen puppies, hot dogs, story tellers, karate kicks, and Frank Beamer. I don't think too many people can make that claim. The Hot Diggity Dog & Tall Tales Festival on Saturday was a fun, albeit windy, day. People enjoyed being able to bring their dogs to the HopeTree campus and participate in the Cutest Dog Competition (sadly, my dog did not win). There were plenty of hot dogs for everyone and the Homestead Creamery's ice cream was fantastic.

  The Tall Tales Competition was incredibly entertaining and something I look forward to even more next year. This year's winner's story about training a fish to be his out-of-water pet had me in stitches. The entire event exceeded all of my expectations.

  More recently, I had the opportunity to hear Virginia Tech Head Coach Frank Beamer speak at our Hopes & Dreams Gala last night at The Hotel Roanoke. As he spun story after story about how just one specific event -- good or bad -- can be all a person is remembered for, I thought of our at-risk youth at HopeTree. What will they be remembered for? What will their legacy be? Our dedicated chaplain, teachers, social workers and cottage staff work each day to make HopeTree a positive experience for our residents. Maybe one resident will be remembered at HopeTree as the person who excelled in Vocational class and learned a new trade, or earned top grades, or gave their life over to Christ and became a positive role model to others.

  Whether we are in high school, college, a new job, or even a festival, life moves pretty fast. Before we know it, it will be over and we will be on to the next phase of life. So while we are here, what do we want to be remembered for?

  This current school semester has been a little different for me. First of all, I'm referring to a time period as a "school semester", something usually reserved for students and teachers and not someone who works in Development & Communications. This semester, however, I have been teaching a Digital Journalism class to one of the students at HopeTree Academy.

  It has been quite an experience for me and I've loved every minute of it. I have been blessed with a student who is well behaved and eager to learn. I have learned patience when explaining how a complicated program works to someone with little prior knowledge of it. I have been humbled by being asked questions I don't know the answer to, only to find out the answer and learn something new myself.

  We color corrected old pictures with a horrible yellow background. We enhanced photos to make them more eye catching. We practiced photography, journalism, and design layout. We shared laughs, traded stories, and became frustrated when a program wouldn't do what we wanted it to do.

  Sure, the class takes time out of my day and I have to plan the rest of my work around it. I also have to prepare material for each class and follow a rough course outline. But it is so important to me to know that a student at HopeTree Academy has an option like this and can develop their interests. Certainly other schools have similar courses that teach similar skills, but nowhere else will a students be able to build a one-on-one relationship with a teacher and have hands-on experience that will take them to the next level.