Gathering Our Voices 2006
– A Volunteer’s Experience
by Carey Charters

Today was the day that I had been waiting for! It was the first day of the second annual “Gathering Our Voices” conference, and you would not believe how stoked I was! I got up to the University at about noon, and got my volunteer shirt on, then I waited for people to start showing up to register. At first, registration was slow, but everyone said to get ready because people are going to be showing up all at the same time. They were right; the registration tables became hectic (after about an hour of waiting), and stayed hectic for the rest of the afternoon. Believe me, registering 1000 youth for a conference is not easy, and I give props to the staff, who handled it very well. I met Michele Morfitt, PAYC coordinator, and she left me with her digital camera, and told me to take as many pictures of the conference as I could, so I did (until the battery died). I was also in charge of the main doors, and making sure that everyone was with their chaperones (yes I was the one who made sure you had a green wristband, and if you didn’t I made sure you found your chaperone)…I had fun doing it, because I met a lot of people (mostly guys…aye) all in all, it was a fun job. I enjoyed welcoming people to my city, I wanted to make sure that their stay here was amazing, and that they enjoyed it enough to consider coming back. By the time the banquet came, I was starving, and still had to wait till everyone else ate before I could get near the food! But it was totally worth it because the food was delicious. I think I gained like ten pounds just from that one dinner! I ate a lot of carrot cake. I didn’t want to leave, but its not like I could sleep on the stairs right? So I finally got home at about ten that night, and fell asleep right when my head hit the pillow.



I woke up tired, but totally eager to get to up to the conference. When I got there I didn’t put on my volunteer shirt right away, I decided to take a break, and I went and checked out the career fair, and played pool (but lets keep that our little secret.) I went to the “Expressing Yourself Through Music” workshop, which was unbelievable! Youth went up and showed off their talents, they were beat boxing, break dancing, and free styling. There was even a special appearance by our local SDS crew, who free styled and beat boxed for us. This is what gathering our voices is all about. The only downfall was the fact that I didn’t win an ipod, or digital camera! My friends Lex, and Trent both won… I was so jealous.
This conference was an amazing follow up to last year’s, and I give thanks to Dianne Binn, for giving Native Youth an experience this amazing. I look forward to the next time we have a chance to come together to share our stories, our talents, and our love for great food. I will always remember the amazing people that I met, and I’ll see all of you at the next pow wow.

Until next year,

Carey Charters

You can check out all the photos, courtesy of Carey, in the photo gallery of Drumbeat.