Thanksgiving Project – Wisdom of Youth

I was at the United Way Worldwide conference this past week. (If you don’t know, I am the CEO of a local United Way). We were fortunate to hear so many wonderful speakers. The interesting thing

know that you have to inject humor into just about any speech to keep people listening, particularly if you are an after lunch speaker.

But I think the one that made the most impact with me was Maya Moore, WNBA standout and Olympian. She is a wise, gracious and very smart young lady. She talked about the influence her mother had in her life and how important it is that adults spend time just being present with children.

We (adults) tend to get wrapped up in the busyness of life and don’t take time to sit on the floor and read a book or pick dandelions with children. We need to just be present in a child’s life. I was reminded that again tonight when someone made a comment to me on his blog that he was sitting in the closet with his toddler. He did that because that was what he child wanted…not because it was the most comfortable place to be (read his <a href=”http://legendsofwindemere.com/2013/04/19/thats-the-plan-for-the-week/”>blog here</a>).

Just a reminder how important the little things are in the eyes of a child. What are you doing today to unleash the potential of children? Are you being supportive? Maya Moore talked about tutoring young people online. Surely if she can do this, I can find the time to do something. It may not be tutoring, but I can certainly read to a child.

What a wise young lady. I hope I can grow up to be like her 😉 Thank you Maya for inspiring me. Thank you for giving of your time to help out a child.

This picture was a result of seeing her check into my hotel. When asked if she would care if we got a picture, she asked if she could check in first. I wasn’t sure she would bother to come back over to my friend and I. But she absolutely did…and smiled too! For the record she was leaning down, and I was wearing my platform shoes. She is a lot taller than me!