Natioanl Youth of the Year

I think I've had the most enviable volunteer experience in our class so far.  I am not paid, but I met lots of lovely kids, acquainted some media and NPO professionals, had a great dinner with nice wines, high-fived one of the Destiny's Child (not Beyoncé, sadly), and watched Denzel Washington giving a touching speech!

This amazing event is the National Youth of the Year Gala, an honor presentation event held by Boys and Girls Club of America. The National Youth of the Year is the Club's premier recognition program, which outstanding teenage club members from local clubs who compete their overall performance(leadership, academic and social services) with each other to be state winners, regional winners and the only national winner. The Club award more than $1 million of scholarship to the winners of different levels, and the National Youth of the Year winner announced at this gala will receive $145,000 in academic scholarships, a trip to Disney World and a brand new Toyota Corolla. 

Venue

The National Youth of the Year Gala takes place at the National Building Museum, a truly magnificent building built in late 19 century where many big events in DC are held, such as the annual Christmas in Washington Program with the President and the First Lady.

The National Building Museum, historically known as the Pension Building.

The main event venue inside this building is a square hall measuring 316*116 feet, with a small fountain and a few Corinthian columns which are among the largest in the world. It is quite spacious even for an event with over 500 attendees, and very easy to be broken out into areas for different purpose. Other than dining area, bar, and the kitchen area, and stage for the program, there is also a carpet that leads to where celebrities and VIPs pose for the media. I did not know there are celebrities before I came, so I was totally shocked to see these guys walking passed me on the carpet and even high fived me!

Kelly Rowland, Monique and Timothy Mosley(Timbaland)

Besides the main hall, there is also a VIP area upstairs and another dining room for the Club kids to have dinner.

The dining area at 4:30pm before guests arrive

Kitchen Area segmented for the catering company to prepare F&B

Sponsorship

Based on the upscale venue and size of this event, you can imagine that this organization has got some generous sponsors. There are 4 levels of sponsors for this event: National Partners, 4 long-term sponsors of the club; Gold Sponsors, 3 sponsors who contribute most for this event; as well as Silver and Bronze Sponsors. 

The sponsors names are printed on signage at both entrances of the event.

Activities

As volunteers I was required to arrive at 4pm. The dress code was cocktail/business for volunteers, and we were all given a cute little club logo to stick on our clothes. I helped with putting some brochure and flyers on every chairs, and then was “supervising” a team of 12 youth greeters as the welcome committee, basically to cheer them up to greet and high five every attendee walking past the carpet. The general activities include: Registration, the program, and dinner. The program and dinner starts simultaneously at about 7:30, and lasts for 2 hours.

The Youth Greeters wearing Mickey ears high five the guests and spread the joy.

The 2-hour program starts with a chorus performance of some club kids, followed by the introduction of comedienne Sherri Shepherd as Master of Ceremonies,  presentation of last year’s winner and the candidates for this year’s YoY, and lastly speeches given by the long-term sponsors and several outstanding alumni includes General McDew, Congressman Steny Hoyer and movie star Denzel Washington.

The dinner includes a salad, an entrée, and a dessert. As volunteers, we sat at a table together with some staff members in the main dining area. The table setting is absolutely lovely, the servers are attentive and professional, and the food is of great quality. It is also very thoughtful of the event planners to give a full menu specifying all the ingredients in each dish. The salad comes at the beginning of the program, and the entrée and dessert are served after the announcement of the YoY.  

Table setting of the general dining area

The event went smoothly the whole night without any kind of significant accidents. I got a little upset that we somehow did not get the dessert till the end, but guess what? The event organizers prepared a hand-written thank-you note and a Starbucks gift card in an envelope for every volunteer.

I almost felt ashamed that I could not have helped more when I opened this envelope!

As it is the first time I know about the Boy and Girls Club of America, I am really impressed by the stories of the outstanding teenagers, and I believe this club is doing a great job to promote the development of children who are in need. To sum up, this night was a lot more than what I expected as a “NPO Annual Gala”, thanks to the thoughtful event planners.