According to former president of the Philadelphia 76ers Pat Croce, there was no room for negative people in Irvine Auditorium last Tuesday evening.
Two nights ago, City Year -- an AmeriCorps program that focuses on community service in inner-city schools -- kicked off its annual convention by featuring a diverse panel of accomplished individuals in its opening festivities.
"Follow your dream," the theme for the convention's opening night, allowed each panelist to speak about their achievements to the 1,000 plus City Year corps members in the audience.
David Bailey -- one of the featured panelists -- sang about his brain cancer diagnoses in 1996 and his reaction when he heard that he only had six months to live. During his speech, Bailey chose to sing about his triumph over the illness.
"They say the hard way is the only way anybody learns to think and after everything I've learned, I'd say that," Bailey sang.
Croce chose to share a month of his life with the audience that included the "lowest low" inhis life -- an accident when he fell off his motorcycle.
"It's June 1999. I feel dazed and I don't know where I am. I see my boot lying near me and then I see my foot in the boot," Croce described.
Yet, despite having his foot sliced off, Croce provided inspirational words and advice to the audience.
"We [all] have the magical power to perceive the impossible as possible... use that power to create a lasting memory," Croce said.
Cyzygy '02: Building Democracy Through National Service, the convention's title, is intended to unite the corps members, City Year staff, civic leaders and sponsors while celebrating the mission of the program.
"The convention is a culmination of the service year that the 1,000 people participated in as part of the AmeriCorps program," City Year Public Relations Manager Gina Wakerly said.
While Philadelphia is the host city for this year's convention, most of the events -- which run from June 4 to 9 -- are taking place on the Penn campus. These events include various workshops for City Year corps members that stress leadership skills and further dedication to service.
City Year is an AmeriCorps program geared toward people between the ages of 17 and 24 who commit ten months of their life to rigorous community service, leadership development and civic engagement in thirteen different sites throughout the nation.
City Year is also expanding internationally to work with youths in South Africa.
After the corps members complete their service, they receive almost $5,000 for college assistance.
Additionally, many of the corps members earn their GED while participating in the program.
On Tuesday night, City Year members were looking forward to meeting their fellow AmeriCorps members.
"I am very excited to meet the other corps and learn about what they have done," Philadelphia corps member Zachary Mackey.
Throughout the evening, every panelist reiterated the importance of pursuing individual aspirations to the audience.
"When I graduated last May I joined City Year... partly because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do something that I wanted to do," Boston corps member '01-'02 Sarah Heine -- who has been paralyzed from the waist down due to a drunk driving accident -- said.
By the end of the night there certainly was not a person in the room with negative energy.
"[Opening night] was such a great visible example of the entire corps coming together... their true power and energy is shown to its fullest because it's the one moment when they're all together in the same room," Wakerly said.
