"We’re KIND of a big deal”

Well, it was the last full day together. It’s hard to believe how fast it has come and gone. I now sit here at my desk at the Hampton Inn in Bricktown, looking out of my window over the ballpark, particularly where we sat tonight. As I do so, I am reminiscing about not necessarily the tours or the leadership activities or even sweating bullets at 6am, I am reflecting on the wonderful people I have come to know this week, and hope to know even further after tomorrow ends and we all go our separate ways. I think about how Chris was acting as if his leg was spontaneously combusting at the Harweldon mansion, how Thomas habitually pats people he passes on the back, how we tried to see how many people could fit in the hot tub in Stillwater, and how so many people, even some of the girls, held doors open and offered to help me load and unload the coolers on and off the bus. I will especially remember what everyone says after participating in all of these activities…how it affects them. These memories of the students, themselves, are what I will remember from this past week.

Today started off by loading up the buses and heading straight to Enid! Our first stop was Advance Foods, a major food processing and distribution plant that fuels millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs into Enid’s economy. There we learned about the path and origins of many food products that we eat on a daily basis. Unfortunately, I neglected to take many pictures because I neglected to look much out of the observation window, which was of the food being processed. The tour was really great and we were even able to try
some samples!

Brent Kisling, the Executive Director of Enid/Garfield County Development Alliance, hopped on our bus following Advance Foods and gave us the low-down on Enid on our way to Leonardo’s, a community-built interactive science facility, similar to the popular omniplex in Oklahoma City. There we walked around and saw all of the exhibits, and then all going outside to the “Adventure Quest” outdoor area, where Mr. Kisling presented us with a challenge to locate 10 questions on pieces of paper attached to areas all over, and find the answers to those questions. Many had troubles with the questions, since they were all about Enid, but Kisling helped us find the answers with no problem. It was then lunch time! We got back on the bus and shipped off to the newly built Oakwood Country Club in Enid. Lunch was a great Mexican buffet and the people of the Enid Development Alliance spoke to us shortly thereafter about Enid and what it means to develop Oklahoma.

“I really enjoyed learning about Enid and how the community comes together to improve it.” – Stacey Stevens

After lunch we loaded the busses and drove on back to OKC! Our first stop was OMRF, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, founded back in the 1940s. There we broke up into five groups and had a fantastic tour where we learned about developments in the hottest topics in medicine and how OMRF continuously interacts with the community.

 
Following OMRF, we headed to Bricktown where we changed out of our nicer clothing to go to the ballpark! We met with Scott Pruitt, who is the General Managing Partner of the Redhawks and former legislator. We then headed to our all-you-can-eat seats for the evening, and we ate basically all we could. =)

The game was exciting and everyone was having a good time! We had to leave a little early so we could have time for the talent show.

Excitingly, our own Layne Ferguson and Erin Tilley were selected to race remote RC cars on the infield!

The talent show was absolutely phenomenal. So many great singing, acting, and even a little kung-fu action! The remainder of the evening was spent swimming, hanging out, (watching the Celtics lose), and working on their group skits they are preparing for us tomorrow.

With that, I have got to get off to get some sleep! Have a good evening!