Dear everyone who I've met at a Grove City Gold Summer Leadership Camp,

Let me start out by saying thank you. But really... THANK YOU. The simple phrase 'thank you' doesn't even measure up to how much you all really mean to me and how I appreciate each and every one of you.

You all taught me how to love. Truly love. Love each other, love other people and most importantly, to love yourself. In one short week, the dynamics of camp allowed us to become so close and have a deep love and connection with one another. I'm very thankful for that.

You all taught me to be genuine. Just being yourself is always good enough, no matter what. I learned how important it is to always be true and genuine. Because you ARE worthy. "You are your you-est you and I'm my me-est me".

You all taught me friendship. After the whole week, we promised to remain friends and stay close and I now know it to be true. It's been almost two years since GCG 2015 and almost a year since GCG 2016, and I still keep in contact with so many of you. Though we were only together one short week, our friendship is stronger than some friendships that I've had for years, and that is truly a blessing.

You all taught me true happiness. You might think that spending a week with a bunch of students and counselors who are so like-minded and have the same interests might be challenging and could call for conflict, but in reality, it was great. Though we are all leaders and love anything and everything that has to do with leadership, we each are different. We learned that each of us belongs to a different color of leadership (or multiple). But whether it be teal, orange, silver or green, with all of us together, we can conquer the world!

A few quick shout outs:

To my co-dellies (delegates), thanks for being incredibly genuine, enthusiastic, uplifting and supportive individuals. We pushed each other all week to become better leaders. We had a blast that whole week and at the state conference in 2016, and our Facebook group is solid and will live on forever along with all of our memories.

To the staff my delegate year, thanks for being amazing role models that each of us was able to look up to and still look up to til this day. You're all phenomenal individuals and I can't wait to see where the world takes each of you! Oh, and us dellies will never forget bedlam and how hard we laughed all week.

To the delegation my first year apart of staff, wow, I couldn't have asked for a better group of dellies for my first year! Throughout the week, you all reminded me what it meant to love, support others, laugh and be yourself. All of you were so open and allowed yourselves to be vulnerable the whole week, and it resulted in tremendous growth. I love you all and I can't wait to see what you do back in your schools and eventually, in the world.

To my fellow staff members (or the youngest GCG staff ever), I love you guys. You opened your arms to me and Gib and allowed us to fit right in as first-year staffers. Though we had some minor setbacks and situations, we worked through them together and everything worked out. And something we may not realize is that we are having an impact on the world by impacting one kid at a time (and I know because of what this camp did for me).

Words will never be able to explain the significance each of you has made on my life. I wouldn't be the leader or the person I am today if it wasn't for this camp and PASC. Camp really meant the world to me and I'm so thankful to have been given the opportunity to have gone to Gold and to staff, and for the opportunity to know so many incredible individuals. So to close, a starfish to each of you for just being you.

I love you all.

Thanks again,

Alexis