DCYAC Closing Ceremony

    My name is Ryan Washington and I am currently the Ward 2 Council-Member for the District of Columbia Youth Advisory Council. Before becoming a council-memeber, I served as a ward advisor for Ward 2. After being apart of this council for over a year and a half, I have grown a lot, along with other council-members and ward advisors. This year was really productive and we have accomplished many things since the beginning of the term. We have had many losses and additions but, at the end of the day, we are all still doing what we love, and that’s serving as a youth advocate and role model.


   I am a member of the Finance Committee and I have to say, there was a drastic change from last year’s committee to this year’s. Well, for starts, we got a new chair for the Finance Committee, which is Council-Member Terrell Bowditch, who I believe; set the tone for all future Finance Chair’s as far as what’s expected and how to uphold the position.

   When we were coming to the end of the term, the Finance Committee wanted to host an event, and we had originally agreed to host a silent auction, which was a good idea, but not the best decision at the time. We eventually realized that the silent auction just wasn’t going to work. I personally did not want the year to end without celebrating our success and we had very little time to decide what we were going to do so, we came up with the conclusion that we were going to have a “professional party-like” ceremony.

    We were all excited about the new idea and we all knew that there was going to have to be a lot of work and time invested in the development of the event. There great ideas coming from everyone on the Finance Committee and they were all great ideas, which were definitely implemented into the planning of the ceremony and the ceremony itself.

    After weeks of planning, the day of the ceremony was finally here. Everybody was excited and nervous but, we were eager to get started. There were many things that went wrong that day and there were many things that were not in place, before and during the event but, no matter what happened the event was still going to be a success. The team behind the whole event which consisted of the Finance Committee, Sarah Williams & Sean Gough (Our Bosses), as well as other council members, had been invincible. We were the ultimate team and we made sure that the event had been set up, to a certain extinct where if we had problems they wouldn’t affect the event and that’s how it went. We were all supportive of each other and we all worked together to make the event a success.

     My job at the ceremony was to oversee everything with Sarah as well as introduce the Mayor and I really enjoyed it. From the food spilling on the floor (which is what we promised the Sumner School that it wouldn’t happen) to myself introducing the Mayor and the relief and happiness of him getting a warm and happy welcome.

    After the ceremony, Sarah, Sean, and I stepped outside and we all talked about how to appreciative we were of each other and how the event would not have been a success without the hard work and dedication we invested into the event. So, to sum it up, this is by far one of the most successful events the DCYAC has hosted during the time in which I have been on the council and I am proud to say that I was a part of the event and the council.

-By Ryan Washington