Such a great day.

I'm getting on a soap box. But just a little one. Maybe like the size of a hotel box of soap. Ya know, mini.

Yesterday was the Candlelight Serenade Acoustic Festival. It was a charity event to raise awareness in the prevention of Child Sex Trafficking in the United states (it is just as bad as any other country). Its a pretty grim, and taboo subject, but so important. I got the opportunity to volunteer with my friend Wayne from 9-1pm, and got to sit at a booth and talk to people about different organizations and how they could help. We then stayed for the rest of the days events until around 11pm.

They had several bands that played in support of the cause, and that was also great. The bands included, Third Eye Blind, Neon Trees, Allred, Dashboard Confessional, 311, Pricilla Ahn, Reliant K, and several others including some local bands. The music was AMAZING, I just loved it.
(Neon Trees, my new favorite band, and they are from Provo but are now all famous!)


The best part of the whole day though, was just being around so many volunteers who were just there because they were passionate about this cause, and they were just uplifting and good people. Most of the bands expressed how they felt priveledged to be a part of the cause, and in between each band, they had videos, and speakers including congressmen, and film producers, and even one girl who captivated everyone by sharing her story of how she was sold in to sex slavery here in Utah. (yes, this happens EVERYWHERE.) I am so grateful I have had the life I have, nothing compares to the pain and trauma these kids have gone though.

(Nick Hexum of 311)

At the very end, the lead singer of Allred had written a song for the event and all the bands came out to sing it together, while the whole audience waved candles (electric ones, as it was windy) in the air. It gives me chills to think about it. It was such a fulfilling day, and something I was glad to be a part of.



After this big event, I just felt so much hope in humanity, especially because a lot of the the volunteers and supporters of these organiztions were my age and younger. Sometimes I really wonder about the future, especially learning about this horrible "industry", but I saw a lot of great people yesterday, and was very uplifted. It made me feel like I wanted to be a part of something bigger than me, like this event. There was a bunch of money raised, and many people signed up to help, and we wrote letters to our congressmen, in support of the H.R. 5575 bill.
Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional
(ps. seeing him fullfilled my 18 yr old self's dream even though I haven't listened to him much since HS.)

Please take a min and watch this, it is a trailer for the film "Playground." Because of the sensitive nature of this topic, people tend to shy away from talking about it, but its something NO ONE is safe from, and education is always the best prevention.



For more info on how to get involved, go to http://childrescue.org/. Thanks for indulging my serious post. :) Much love!