Youth Cultural Celebration

Saturday, November 17th,  was the day of the Youth Cultural Celebration. With the Boise temple re-opening and being re-dedicated, all of the youth in our church ages12-18 got to participate in a dance performance for the Prophet and President of our church, Thomas Monson. There was about 9,300 kids that participated! It was the largest gathering of youth that we know of in the history of the church. There were so many kids, that only a few adults got to be at the actual performance which took place at the Taco Bell Arena (BSU Pavillion). It was broadcast to the local church buildings so that anyone who wanted to watch it still could. Since Marc is working as the Young Men's President, he spent the last several months with the kids at the rehearsals and practices. On the 17th, he left at 6:30 in the morning and spent all day with the kids as they had their dress rehearsals in two different locations. They started out at Mountain View High School, and then were transported by bus to the Pavillion where they spent the rest of the day preparing for and practicing. Each stake, (large region made up of many wards) prepared a 2 minute dance routine complete with costumes, props and choreography. Marc came home a little after 11:00 at night. 

I tried to grab a few pics to show the magnitude of the event. I was not there, I took the kids over to the stake center to watch it. I grabbed these pictures off the photo sharing site: http://boiseculturalcelebration.smugmug.com
Here's our group rehearsing at Mountain View, can you spot Marc in his orange shirt?

 

Here's President Monson a few minutes after he entered the stadium. He rode in on a golf cart and the place just erupted! Everyone was standing, clapping, and yelling. People that were there said he was treated like a rock star! :)

This is our stake's actual performance. I was texting with Marc the whole time while he was there and he was giving me the play by play of what to look for and what was happening real time. It was fun to have someone on the "inside".

 I grabbed the rest of these to get an idea of how many kids were involved. It was amazing!

  What a night to remember! It was such a neat opportunity, even to watch from a nearby church building! Marc said that the emotion and feeling in the room was electric! It was a power he's never experienced before.