The With You All the Way! Tour started back last month, with our first stop – Fort Leonard Wood, MO. It was a great way to start the Fall 2015 Tour by meeting over 2,000 military kids in just one week. The Center Director at the USO Fort Leonard Wood joined us for all the presentations that week and was kind enough to share her thoughts in the letter below:
Good Morning, Now that I have had the chance to sit down and catch up, I wanted to make sure to write you guys and let you know just how big of impact the Trevor Romain performances had on our entire Fort Leonard Wood community, from our young elementary school students to the teenagers, to their teachers, guidance counselors and to the parents of those young hearts you touched, they are all grateful that you took a chance on us and came out and presented your life changing program to so many throughout the community, truly helping many face their silent unvoiced fears.
From the first presentation at Wood Elementary school, when the guidance counselor pulled me aside with tears in his eyes towards the end of the show and told me how much he appreciated the fact that we cared enough to think about the needs of those military students sitting in the auditorium, because often times they are the forgotten ones, often times they are overlooked, I knew the entire week was going to be filled with powerful touching moments that would change many lives.
As the event date approached for the Waynesville Middle School, I was intrigued to see how the program would be received by teenagers and to my surprise the entire gym filled with almost 900 students were silent, locked in on every word being spoken truly listening to the message being spoken by Trevor and Woody. It was great to see the excitement in the kids after the Middle School performance as a few groups walked up to Trevor and just wanted the chance to talk to him, to tell him their story and Trevor took the time to talk to each and every one, making each student feel special by taking the time to just listen to them. And just when you thought that wasn’t enough, the school’s principal walked up and starting talking to us about how the program impacted her and she could not hold back the tears, if that isn’t a testimony of how programs change lives, then I don’t know what is.
From talking to groups as small as 20 to talking to groups as large as 900, every program was felt, every program that was put on, was done so in a way that insured those children left feeling changed, feeling empowered, feeling valued. In the weeks since, I have had the chance to talk to some of the counselors who attended, who said it was one of the most impactful programs they have ever seen, that because of the show, they have had several students come to them to talk about their feelings, students they have never been able to get through to before. I have run into parents within the community who couldn’t stop saying thank you for brightening their child’s day, talking about how their kid is writing in their journal each and every night and they couldn’t thank you enough for providing such a meaningful outlet for their child to write out their feelings.
From the little girl who lost her father to a IED and was currently struggling as her mother was fighting cancer, worried that she would lose her to, to the special needs boy who wasn’t afraid to stand up amongst hundreds and let us know what it felt like to be bullied and how that made him feel, to the little girl fighting an inoperable brain tumor who has been given just months to live, who was touched by the With You All The Way video that was shared and just started crying in my arms knowing she may never see those places throughout the world that were in the video, but was so happy to see messages throughout the world, bringing her closer to those places……..There will never be another program as powerful as this one, as powerful as the With You All The Way tour, thank you for allowing me to be witness to so many powerful moments, that I will never forget and will forever cherish.
Sincerely, Kelly
Copyright © 2013 The Comfort Crew
