Final Day

Our final day:

A wind storm last night blew over our tent and about half of the others on the mall. So we started our day by bringing our team to help for an hour and a half putting them back up. I'm guessing we reset about 50 tents. It was nice to see the tent display restored - I suppose the tents should have all been staked (some were), but that part of the mall was like cement - very hard to get stakes in the ground.

From there, we returned to the STAND conference, and got to attend the last of the break out sessions on topics such as the use of media. We also were there for the regional breakouts (picture above of MacKenzie reporting to the Northeast group about our Massachusetts group ideas). Then when the next rotation came for optional programs, about half of us headed to the festivities on the mall and the other half stayed to the end of the conference, then joined us at the mall. We got to take a final stroll through the tents - many of them really are works of art. We also participated in a parade of the cities where the various groups strolled past the stage and were announced (Cape Cod!). We then got to hear the Voices of Mercy again as well as Sarah Lee and Johnny, and some compelling speakers.

At 2, we dragged ourselves away and loaded up on the bus for the long drive home. After a few hours of quiet home time while we still had light, we stopped for dinner, then got stuck in traffic getting to the GW bridge in NY. We passed this time with an extended sing-a-long, and some of us even got some sleep through Connecticut. We pulled in to Harwich HS at 1:30 in the morning. See you in school at 7:25!