Hey HOBY - I will be mailing out copies of the HOBY Maine 2011 video this week for those of you who ordered.  If you didn't order and would still like a copy there is still time.  Just send me a note with your mailing address and a check for $10 to HOBY Maine 26 Ardsley Ave. South Portland, Maine 04106 and I will drop one in the mail for you.  

It was fun to relive our OUTSTANDING adventure while I was tweaking it!  Miss you all.
Syd

Returning to HOBY as a junior facilitator is a privilege and honor. As an ambassador, I had a life changing experience. I became a better leader, I became more confident, but most importantly, HOBY gave me a new outlook on life. As a junior facilitator, my life changed in a completely different way.

There aren’t many places in the world where one can witness such an amazing transformation of young adults. I watched as a group of shy, quiet, high school sophomores walked into an unfamiliar setting. I watched as they introduced themselves and made friends. I watched as they struggled through team building. I watched them slowly started to come out of their shells. I watched them become stronger leaders and for me, that experience was incredible.

Every year I return to HOBY I learn something new. This year I learned about a new generation of students. The most recent group of ambassadors at HOBY Maine is a great group of leaders. I have faith that they will all go on to do outstanding things. Programs like HOBY give me confidence that our country and our world will always have strong leaders. As long as HOBY is around, extraordinary leadership will be around as well.

I love HOBY because it’s the one place in the world where I can truly be myself. Sadly, at home, at school, and even around my friends, I don’t act like myself. I act like a dull version of HOBY me. It is something about my character that I need to work on and HOBY helps me with that.

My goal as a junior facilitator was to give the ambassadors an amazing HOBY experience. If I make the slightest impact on just one student, my job is done. 

-Ben Glidden, HOBY Maine '07 Alumni

Check out this article in the Portland Press Herald about the Born Learning Trail at the Northern York County YMCA!  We helped start this work on Saturday - OUTSTANDING!
http://www.pressherald.com/news/day-of-caring-mobilizes-volunteers_2011-06-09.html

Exactly one week ago, on Friday, Jun 3 at 9am, our 2011 HOBY Maine Ambassadors started to arrive to the University of New England for a weekend many of them will not soon forget.  They checked into their dorms, said goodbye to their parents and joined the rest of the ambassadors for cheering and icebreakers.  I expect many of them were pretty freaked out at that point! Most of them did not know any one else there and some of them were away from home for the first time - anxiety was running high. 

A quick introduction to the weekend was followed up by our first guest - Keynote Speaker, Will Nelligan.  Taking a rather unconventional approach, Will immediately gave them a group challenge and they were working on their first skit as groups!  There was no time to ease out of comfort zones - we took them to the edge of the nest and pushed them out... and they flew!  

By lunch time, an outside observer would have thought these young men and women had known each other for days, not hours. The afternoon brought more team building activities some in their small groups, where they were becoming more comfortable and others in new groups to once again push them beyond their new comfort limits.  

At check in the next day we were already hearing comments like, "I wish this experience would never end!"  The morning was spent volunteering at the Northern York County YMCA and the teams worked seamlessly together accomplishing a tremendous amount in a very short amount of time. Ron and Becky from the Y were impressed!  

Group close down that night was intense, with ambassadors speaking of the life-long friendships they had made in just two days and the value of the experiences they had during their time at HOBY. There was a lot of laughter and some tears (good ones). 

As parents began to arrive for the luncheon on Sunday, I was able to hear the other side of the story - of ambassadors calling home during the weekend so energized and excited about their experience.  I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to share the HOBY journey with these incredible individuals.  I am so grateful to the staff and Junior facilitators who help create an engaging, safe environment for our ambassadors to explore their potential for leadership and personal development.  In many ways I am ready to put this year on fast forward so we can do it all over again!  

Sydney Clifton - Corporate Board President & Leadership Seminar Chair & HOBY Mama