Service and Creativity: Project Unify, Assembly

Another oppurtunity that i was able to lead and be a part of was creating and putting on an assembly for my school that educated my classmates on how important it is to use respectful language, specifically refraining from the use of the deragatory term "retarded".  When my counselor told me that she wanted me to help plan the assembly I was extremely excited but also really nervous that my class mates wouldnt respond well to the message.  We immediatley began planning the assembly and brainstorming ideas for making it the best it could be.  I contacted ambasadors from the special olympics program to speak and asked kids and adults at our school who had family members with special needs to speak also.  As the assembly approached I became more and more nervous that my class mates would mock the message or not be affected by it at all.  On the day of the assembly all of the members of project unify came to school in their "spread the word to end the word" t shirts ready to help make the assembly perfect and to teach their friends and teachers why it was so important to them.  The entire secondary school gathered in the gym and we heard from special olympics athletes, special olympics ambassadors and even students at our school who felt passionatley about the campaign.  By the end of the assembly everyone was silent and some people were even moved to tears.  The principal congratulated my counselor, me and the other students who contributed to leading the assembly on hosting the best assembly he said he had ever seen at our school.  On twitter, facebook and other social networds my class mates raved about the powerful message that Project Unify had spread and how they would be thinking twice before they used the word "retard" again or made fun of someone with intellectual disabilities.  Overall I can say that this assembly was the more proud moment of my life.  All of the hard work we had put into creating it had paid off and we had made a difference at our school.

 all of project unify

 my counselor and me with ambassadors from the special olympics and two athletes

a special olympics athlete speaking at the assembly