Road Trip Pics... more to come!

Let the Sweep begin...

So, my fellow ERC's, Kevin and Kelly, are embarking on our whirlwind tour of North America (well, the Midwest). We are traveling back through all the cities the cast visited plus making a few more stops along the way. So far we have gone through Waukesha, Madison and Eau Claire Wisconsin. We are currently in Minneapolis, Minnesota and we head to Mankato, MN on Wednesday. So far we've had our ups and downs and found road life to be quite the experience. We've also found that this trip, if nothing else, will prove to be very random. We've already gone out for a night on the town with the local mortician in Eau Claire (who was actually a very cute young guy!), met lots of fun, interesting UwP alumni, made friends with a random computer genius in a coffee shop (who found our emails somehow and emailed us right after we left the shop!), gone go-kart racing, hugged a rainbow colored cow and driven around town at 12 am looking for free WiFi. (Thank you Panera parking lot!) We've named our vans the "Psycho Llama" and the "Bad Bunny".

CHICAGO BABY!

Wow.... these past few days have been Crazy! Yes, crazy enough to deserve a capital C. So, Saturday night we stayed up all night to take the cast to the airport to catch a flight to Japan. We left Wisconsin at 2:30 am and said goodbye to 90 people (I think I hugged them all!) at O'Hare around 6 am. I was very sad to say goodbye- its amazing how attached you get to people that you have only known a few months. I'm sure many of them I will see again, but who knows if I will ever get to Thailand to see Khan, Sweden to see Linda, or Broomfield to see the Shelstas... okay maybe I could swing that.... Anyway after our tearful goodbyes outside of airport security we crashed for a few hours at an alumna's place in downtown Chi-town. We got up, hopped on the 'L' and saw Wicked. AMAZING. Simply amazing. We then played tourist for a few hours and walked around in some of the most humid weather I have ever experienced. Unfortunately, our hotel was pretty far out of downtown, so we couldn't experience Chicago night life. However.... there just happened to be a gay kareoke bar/dance club next to our hotel. Seriously. Hunter's, it was called. So, Scott, Kelly, Kevin and I sang our hearts out and danced our asses off. I sang Britney- by myself- something I seriously thought I would never do. Talk about stepping out of my comfort zone. Yea me! So after a few hours of sleep last night we said goodbye to the windy city and came back to Wisconsin to begin our "ERC Sweep". We will spend about a month doing follow-up and admissions through Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska. Woo woo. Luckily I will have GREAT company- Kevin and Kelly are a blast- I just hope we can stop having fun long enough to get some work done!

Chicago never knew what hit it

This is why I love my job

I received this email this morning from a host mom in Sioux Falls for me to pass on to her host daughters who stayed with her last week. Its stories like this that make all the long days, stressful weeks and little pay SO WORTH IT! Up with People is an amazing program and I am SO PROUD to be a part of it!

Good morning ladies,

Hope your travels went well and you are having a great time in Wisconsin. Dale and I were very sad last night when we came home to an empty house. We talked for a long time, and as a direct result of having the two of you stay with us, we have decided to become foster parents. It’s something we have talked about for years, but were never certain. The positive impact you made by staying with us has given us the courage to try fostering children in need. Thank you for this gift. Please continue to change the world one person at a time.

Love always and travel safely,

Sara J. Carothers

Adios Sioux Falls!

Well, Sioux Falls was a smashing success! Thanks to the hard work of all the people in Sioux Falls for making Up with People's visit ROCK! We sold out the show (almost 2,000 people) and raised $50,000 for our community partners!!! It was awesome. I think the cast really enjoyed their visit- I am very proud of the hard work of my advance team. Yay us! Unfortunately, I don't have too many pics to share- my camera died right before the show- bummer! I do have some of the awesome playground we built at Broom Tree and the Dakota Bowl halftime show- which was amazing!