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Reliving the Glory Days

Alll while raising money for STLF

Remember the days of eating grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit rollups?  Remember the days of having so much fun that the only worry in the world was if you could keep playing?  Remember the days of going on Pay It Forward Tours and staying up until 4am chatting?  Well for 19 people this past week, they got to relive these glory days and many more by going on the Glory Days Tour.

This was the second Glory Days Tour and it turned out to be a great success!  The concept of the Glory Days Tour is pretty cool, if I may say.  It is part programs, part fundraising.  What I mean by that is that the trip works just like our other Pay It Forward Tour withserviceprojects, travel, and nighttime reflection activities.  The second portion of the trip is that is also serves as a fundraiser for STLF.  Each person pays $450 (the same as the college tour); however $250 of the registration is a donation to pay it forward so a middle school or high school student can experience the Tour!  This year I’m glad to say $3,000 was raised!  This will help 30 students go on a tour that previously could not afford it and give them the opportunity to reveal leadership in themselves.   Truly remarkable!

This double whammy of fun mixed with fundraising was a solid time had by all on the bus.  On July 19-22 the group headed out of Minneapolis to Turtle Lake, WI, Ashland, WI and finally Houghton, MI.  While many of the people on the bus went on Pay It Forward Tours in college, there were a handful of people that had heard of STLF through others and wanted to get more involved.  There was Allison, a parent of an STLF high school participant that wanted to try and understand what it was that made STLF so impactful for her son.
  There was Sarah, who went to a college that didn’t have STLF, but after learning more about it she wanted to get see what it all was about.  These are the stories that made the trip so much fun.  I personally had so much fun seeing the different STLF supporters & alum with different stories interact on the bus.  Just like any tour, every person has a story.  Seeing those stories come together to form a chapter in everybody’s book was definitely the highlight for me.

While that was the main highlight for me, there were some other great moments that made this trip awesome.  Here are some of those moments:

• Weeding pepper plants at an organic farm that sold their produce to Chipotle

• Doing a scavenger hunt at a casino

• Eating gushers and PB&J sandwiches among many great tour foods like granola bars

• Getting a tour of the South Shore Brewery in Ashland, WI

• Playing at the Chutes and Ladders playground in Houghton, MI

Every tour I go on I get asked which one is my favorite.  To me, that is the toughest question ever.   I like to live by the STLF concept of share don’t compare so to me they all are my favorites.  They each have reasons they’re the best.  Maybe it was my first tour, or the great chats I had on a bus, the list goes on.  This trip was one of my favorites because I was able to pay it forward to others so they too can experience STLF.

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