Youth of the Year Regionals Day 2 | Huntington Beach, CA

Day 2 started out with some media training. National staff gave a BGCA 101 lesson to all of the Youth of the Year candidates to prep them for the possibility of being interviewed by a reporter when it’s time for the big show on Thursday. The teens practiced in front of one another and 1 by 1 their stories spilled out. They all come from different walks of life and they are all no doubt extraordinary.

This year is the first year that BGCA has sperated state Youth of the Year winners and military Youth of the Year winners, so our group is large. The youth have connected with each other like they’ve known each other for years. It’s really fun to watch them interact, bond and then support one another.

After media training, they practiced on-camera interviews. Again, the poise that each youth had, in spite of their challenges in life, was so inspiring. The interviews were follwed by dinner on the Huntington Beach Pier at a popluar diner called Ruby’s. The pier is over a quarter mile long and Ruby’s sits at the very end of it and overlooks miles of ocean. There were numerous sufers catching waves to prepare for the US Surf Open, which will happen this Saturday. The beach was alive with people setting up for the event and shopping centers, surf stores, and various vendors spilled out into the streets which created a Saturday market feel.

As far as today…we are off to the Happiest Place on Earth.