Prudential Spirit of Community Weekend

Wow, wow, wow! This weekend has been nothing short of incredible. As you may know, this weekend I was supposed to be in Washington D.C. for The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards Honoree events and ceremony. Unfortunately, I was not able to go due to the pandemic, but I had the opportunity to meet all of the other honorees through our good friend Zoom!

It was amazing, and I absolutely loved getting to hear about everyone’s community service work and all of their stories.

I got to share all about Self-ValYOU and about the other things I have done in my community. We talked about everything from how we started our work, to even what our favorite cereal was!

One minor detail...I got to learn all about one of my favorite actresses, Kristen Bell! She was our keynote speaker this afternoon, and I got chills while listening to her talk about her numerous acts of community service work, and all about her career in acting and musical theater.

“Do something nice today and don’t get caught.” - Kristen Bell

By the end of the weekend, I had 3 big takeaways. One, there are more ways to get involved in your community than you think. The projects that I learned about this weekend were so different, and creative. It shows that there truly is no limit to what you can and can’t do in terms of helping your community. Two, there is so much to learn by just hearing other people’s stories. While listening to my group (Group 6!!) I gained so much insight on different ways to involve others in what I do. It was so inspiring, and I encourage you to really work on listening to other people's experiences and see what you can take away from them, you can learn what is really needed in your community and who might want to join you in helping others. And finally, you really are never too young to be an active member of your community. I say that a lot LOL, but this weekend just assured me that I’m right. Some of the changemakers that I talked to this weekend were in 6th grade! Isn’t that amazing? They are so young and have already made such an impact on their communities and abroad. You are never too young to be involved no matter how big or small the act is.

I felt so honored to spend the weekend meeting these young leaders who have done so much good in such little time. I will never forget this weekend. Thank you so much to The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards for this incredible opportunity.

I will leave you with this great quote that Kristen Bell said on today’s interactive live stream! “Do something nice today and don’t get caught.”#PruSpirit2020 #valYOUable