Rocky Mountain Mission Trip - Work Day/Spirit Walk Recap

I didn't take this photo but stood in about the same spot with a half dozen elks in the meadow.  It's amazing the wildlife you see out here.  For me I've seen moose, bears, elks, deer, foxes, and birds like I've never seen before.  It's just amazing to be so close.

Picture this now.  52 high school students spread out over a mountainside.  The sun is setting and each person is taking a few minutes to grow individually grow closer to God.  It was a moment that gives you chills.  And it was one of the most dramatic moments I have spent on any mission trip.  Last night we took a "Spirit Walk."  In small groups, our mission trippers ascended a mountain path.  Along the way there were 5 rest stops, with a member of our adult group waiting to share insight into communion.  Communion with the church, church family, friends, our families and God were there topics of the insights.  Then the small groups gathered near the top of the trail, spread out individually on tree trunks, fallen logs, or just stood and stared at the mountain in the distance as the sun set on our day.  It's hard to find words to give the scene justice, but trust me, it was a very special moment.

Yesterday was the day to finish our work for the week.  Our fence crew set more than 175 posts on the YMCA entrance.  They stretched every 12 feet, so perhaps that is close to a mile of fence post.  The other half of our fence crew put in the rails and finished nearly half of the posts set. We'll share photos later, but it looks amazing.  The painting crew has finished over 20 staff rooms.  New paint, holes patch and shelves and trim all freshened.  And our "slash crew" has huge piles of logs and brush piled high all over the children's cabins areas.  I can't even imagine how many trees they cleared, certainly over 1000 this week.

The YMCA staff is a bit overwhelmed.  Many people come here to volunteer, but most don't commit 3 solid days of hard work to make the YMCA staff lives better.  Usually volunteers are serving other guests, in the cafeteria, or front desk or in the facilities throughout the grounds.  We came to serve the servants.  Our YMCA staff group assigned to our project brought out a gallon of ice cream, chocolate syrup and cookies to celebrate our work.  It was a great way to end 3 days in the sun!

Most of the YMCA staff are college students, members of Navigators and here to serve the people who come to enjoy and worship at this resort.  Our YMCA staffers told us at the end of the day that they had been on many mission trips themselves, serving others, but they had never been served themselves.  It was very touching.

Mission trips are about building relationships.  And our kids have truly done that.  You start the week with kids that know each other hanging out together.  But slowly though the week, they meet the youth from the other church, and friendships grow.  By last night you couldn't tell which group was from which church as they were so intermixed.

Today is a free day.  We have hikes planned into the mountains, a high ropes course test for everyone, and use of all the great facilities at the complex.  Tonight the YMCA is hosting all of us for an ice cream party and then we will have our own bonfire where we will reflect on the week and give the youth and adults the moving forward challenge.  Hopefully God will give each of us the right words to plant the seeds necessary for the right seeds to be planted.  I won't be posting tomorrow as we leave at 5 AM for home.  Sometime after midnight we should be back in Champaign. 

But I'll try and recap the trip Sunday.  By the way, Derrick, Jim and I will be giving the message on Sunday, discussing all that has been accomplished.  I hope I'm awake for that!  :)  Thank you all for your support, your donations and your prayers.  We all know you are thinking of us and praying for us.  It really makes a difference.

Rocky Mountain Mission Trip - Work Day 3

Yesterday was one of the days when you wake up feeling wonderful and about half way through the day realize you are really tired!  Adrenaline can only take you too far.  Fortunately yesterday was also the day the youth stepped up, committed to get their work done.  One of the things I love is the energy the youth generates.  I know it's surprising as we think of young people as sitting around, listening to IPODs, or playing video games.  But for the most part, this group of youth comes to work.  Long ago trip organizers Jim McClary, Jim Olson and Scott Edwards planted seeds that these trips are about building relationships, serving others with the projects we do and most importantly growing spiritually.  Jim and I were talking last night after a worship bonfire, that one of the things that makes the Savoy/Macomb Missions trips different that others we know about is the bonding and friendships that come from working side by side for 6 or 8 hours a day on a hard project.  Personally it's the best part for me as I have gotten to know some wonderful young people from Macomb and Savoy as well. 

I especially enjoy four young men from Macomb.  Sam, Phillip, Matt and Cordell are as different as any 4 young men can be.  Sam is very athletic, Phillip a huge sports fanatic, especially the Cardinals, Matt is an artist, musician and Cordel is just a smart kid who you love to have around all the time.  Yet they fit together nicely and love to spend time working, talking, playing cards and just having fun.  Left to there own towns and lives, these 4 surely would have never met.  But through the mission trip experiences have been brought together and become "brothers".  They are respectful to all the adults here and try hard to get to know every one of us.  In a way, they help us to feel a part of the "young crowd."  There are about 10 other examples of small groups here with kids that have become life long friends and are a joy to spend time with every day.  And that goes back to building relationships.  It's fun to watch and fun to watch grow over the years as we come back to mission work annually.

As for yesterday's work, we are one day closer to finishing.  It was a beautiful day, the first without mist and fog in the morning.  The temps were perfect and the skies were blue.  I found myself stopping and just looking around more yesterday than any before as each hour the sun hits the mountains slightly differently and you just admire God's handiwork.   Today we finish, whether the job is done or not.  And tomorrow is another free day, with hiking, fishing, shopping and our wrap up services planned. 

We talked last night that we wish we had more than a week a year to spend together.  The mission trip teams have become like family, and our work and spiritual growth is a sort of annual family reunion we cherish in our lives.  In fact I'm sure there are many things we share with each other we don't share with family.  God has chosen to assemble us together and work, learn and grow.  I'm just happy he choose me!

Rocky Mountain Mission Trip Work day 2

This photo gives you an idea of where we are staying.  The YMCA of the Rockies is an amazing facility, mostly used to host youth groups, camps, weddings and family reunions.  The accommodations far exceed our normal fare.  We all have beds!  That's a plus.  And there are bathrooms/showers in each room.  The food is fairly good.  There is a large dining hall that seats about 250 and they must feed over 500 a day.  Great selection at all meals, with lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, plenty of drink choices, but interestingly enough, limited desert choices.  I need my ice cream!  :)

I blogged early this morning and then walked back to the complex.  I found out quickly that one of the young ladies from Macomb, Lexa Mahr (on the right in the photo), had been bitten by a spider and had a large red blotch with a black circle.  They took her to the hospital last night and prescribed some medication for her.  I went and picked it up this morning.  Lexa and a wonderful girl, not one to complain about anything.  And if she had her way the staff would have rubbed some dirt on it and let her "play on."  But she is fine now and worked hard all day clearing brush.

We got deep into our projects yesterday.  One group clearing dead trees near the summer over night camp grounds for kids.  I met a man, Ransom, who is originally from Aurora, at the camp grounds.  He explained to me the open fields surrounding us were covered by pine trees just a few years ago.  Now it looks like a mountain valley covered only by grass.  It's hard to imagine just how much damage this beetle has caused and how much more damage it will do to these mountainsides and valleys.  But at least no one has been hurt, and there hasn't been a forest fire yet.  That is the main reason we are doing this work, to help/prevent a fire from destroying this YMCA complex.

Another group painted the staff quarters.  I didn't make it to that project, but was told they finished 3 of 10 rooms yesterday.  Our group is building a fence from the administration building to the main road.  Post holes have been dug, and we are skinning the bottom two feet of 6 foot logs, tarring the part we skin, then putting the logs in the post holes, leveling them, filling in the holes and finally attaching rails.  We got about 100 posts in yesterday and about 50 feet of railing done.  We put in more poles then they expected us to do all week!  So they are getting more post holes dug today we hope.  It's hard work, but the temperature is 75 degrees and the scenery is amazing of course.  The only downside is that since we are 9000 ft in the air the sun is brighter and burns the skin a little faster.  We will be applying more sun screen today as there were some burns, including me!  :)

Last night we attended a Navigators meeting.  There are about 100 members of Navigators here for the summer.  For those that don't know, Navigators is an International collegiate Christian outreach program.  We have a large chapter at the UI so I"m familiar with there work.  I think I understand they commit 12 weeks in the summer and work and worship here.  Sounds like a great summer job!  The service had great music with a contemporary praise band, a young pastor who talked about how God is the God of everyone in our world, not just Americans, and talked about how Christianity is a bit like eating at a buffet table.  We all pick and choose how we worship, serve and grow, and choosing the "right entree" defines our spiritual growth.  Then he said that mission work is sort of like the dessert bar, where the selections are many but the service is satisfying.  Sort of like an ice cream sundae bar. 

There were three gentleman from the Japan Navigators who talked about the aftermath of the tsunami, earthquake and nuclear power tragedy.  All had family and friends injured, displaced or that died in the tragedy.  But the one positive thing was that the government had embraced the mission work of the groups and as a result, the body of Christ is more united in Japan.  I didn't realize that less than 1% of Japan is Christian.  And that 84% of the pastors in Japan are over the age of 50.  A staggering statistic when you contemplate the potential growth for the Japanese.

The service was wonderful, but honestly our group was a bit tired from our days work, a shorter service would have been appreciated.

Today, more work.  Then tonight we are going to a worship bonfire.  The temperature at night drops to about 47 degrees.  Hopefully it won't be raining.  Like Hawaii, there is almost daily afternoon rain here.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to send me an email.  toddsalen@gmail.com

Good bye for now

Rocky Mountain Mission Trip - Work day 1

Today we roll up our sleeves and go to work.  We are doing three basic projects this week, putting in a fence on the entry drive from the highway, painting rooms for the YMCA staff and clearing wood from the pine trees that have died as a result of the beetles.  Pastor Jim McClary is in charge of the pine tree slashing, Derrick Johnson is heading up the fence building and Scott Edwards is the paint leader.  Jim and Scott have been organizing mission trips for over 8 years.  They have been friends for 38 years.  Jim is the Pastor at Savoy Methodist Church and Scott is a member of the Wesley Methodist Church in Macomb.  It's hard to imagine how many young lives the two of them have changed as a result of their planning and organizing mission trips.  I have been involved in 6 of them, and all of them have been remarkable in both the work that has been accomplished and the spiritual growth of the youth and the adults.  We are truly blessed to have them both as our leaders.  Hard to imagine I'm sure that when they met as 12 year olds back in Quincy that God had a plan for them that would continue to play out 38 years later.

Our youth is doing terrific so far.  Yesterday was a fun day, a chance to get acclimated to the elevation.  We are at 8700 ft here at the YMCA and I can feel it for sure.   Most of the group went on a horseback ride into the mountains in the morning.  The afternoon was spent either hiking, or playing on these amazing facilities the YMCA provides.  I went on the hike.  About 3 miles with a elevation change of about 500 feet.  That's a good beginner's hike.  In the middle of the trail was a beautiful waterfall.  I'll post some photos when I get back as I forgot to bring my camera download connection.  Trust me, it was beautiful. 

It rained about halfway into the walk.  Hard!  And we all got soaked.  But no one complained.  I know many of you might say, "why would you want to spend your vacation with 45 high school students?"  The answer is, because this are really special kids.  One of the real joys in working on mission trips is meeting these idealistic young men and women, listening to them, and sharing insights into some of the problems they may be facing in their lives. 

I believe most of the problems facing our youth today could be solved if adults took the time to really listen to them.  These kids have some amazing stories to tell.

One of our young men had leukemia at age 3.  He is a strong, athletic young man.  And yet he lives with the possibility it could come back at any time.  He lives each day fully.  A lesson for us all.  Most of these kids come from strong families.  They have been given the support they needed by wonderful parents, many of them whom I know.  But some are from broken families that struggle daily just to pay the bills.  Just the fact they are here is a sign the parents want to build a strong foundation for these kids to build their lives on.

The Snow Mountain Ranch has been around for over 100 years.  It started as a YMCA camp and has transformed into a retreat/convention facility.  The staff here spends all of their time providing young people a facility to learn and grow their spirituality.  It's a bit funny they aren't used to groups coming to serve them.  They are in the service business, yet having someone serve them is new.  I'm told we are the first group to come and dedicate themselves to serving the YMCA.  We are in effect, serving the servants. 

Yesterday I bumped into Bill and Cinny Green.  Many of you know them from their years building and managing GT's Western Bowl in Champaign.  Cinny told me they come here annually and help organize for the youth groups that come here in the summers.  They spend 12 weeks a year as YMCA staff helping these groups enjoy the facility.  That was fun to see them and I had no idea they were here.  Our friendship goes back over 20 years.  Amazing how God brings you together with friends, even 1000 miles from home!

So it's time to get this day started.  It's a little overcast this morning and the weather is a brisk 50 degrees.  It should heat up to about 75 later today.  Today we begin the work of serving the YMCA.  But the best work of all is reaching out to the youth and adults who are here with us and beginning the work of sharing the great message of Jesus with each of them.  Pray for us!

Rocky Mountain High! Traveling with 51 members of Savoy and Macomb Methodist Church to Colorado

So here were are!  Is this better than the mission trips we have taken to Mexico and Dulac, Lousiana?  I think so!  This is my 6th Mission trip with this group.  We have about 45 high school students from the Champaign and Macomb areas and we are planning to do some work for the Snow Mountain YMCA this week.  The Rocky Mountains are struggling with a beetle that is literally eating the pine trees.  There are hundreds of acres of dead trees in the mountains, a real forest fire hazard.  We are volunteering for the YMCA Convention center complex clearing the dead wood, painting some of their staff rooms and building a fence on the complex.  It's a lot of work, but the scenery makes it all worthwhile.  And of course they are all terrific kids.

It took us two days to get here.  We traveled in a caravan of about 5 cars and vans, loaded to the gills with suitcases and the "necessaries".  We had a few problems, first the running board for our van broke off "halfway."  Getting the other half off the van was a challenge, but our noble driver, Derrick Johnson, managed.  We stopped in Lexington Nebraska night one.  A little Day's Inn served as our rest stop.  There were plenty of Arby's, McDonalds and of course a Wal Mart where we could reload.  Who knew you had to reload after just 10 hours of driving :) .  But we got that done.  We met the group from Macomb in Lexington and our caravan grew to near capacity.  Next morning...."Head for the Mountains." 

Now the van I was in had 13 people and was pulling a full trailer.  I believe that the weight load was good for a straight road, but the mountains....no way.
We decided to go a little out of the way and drive through the Rocky Mountain National Park.  Like all National Parks, Rocky Mountain is wonderful.  We saw some amazing landscapes, mountains, rivers and even a few live moose, elks, and a bear.  What an amazing experience!  And then, it was time to come down the mountain........

We got around the Alpine Valley look out center and started downhill.  Our van didn't stop at all the "photo sites" so we were about an hour ahead of the rest of the group.  As we came down our brakes started to fail.  Well, we pulled over quickly and tried to flag down help.  No one stopped, and an hour or so later the rest of the group caught us.  We shifted the trailer to another van and redistributed most of the kids to other cars and vans.  And Derrick and I said a short prayer and started the rest of the way down.  Of course I'm writing this so we made it!  :)
God was watching over us for sure. 

I love mission trips.  I love the work we do and the people we help.  Most of all I love the relationships we build with the kids looking for answers and the adults who always go through a change in spirit as well.  When I went on my first trip I thought I was some Knight riding in on a white stallion to help those in need.  I have discovered again and again the people we help are more noble than I, and that God uses each of us as he wishes. 

This week I'll update you on our progress.  Today is a free day and we are adjusting to the altitude.  Already the kids have gone horse back riding, and there is a hike, canoeing, basketball and even square dancing still to come tonight.  Tomorrow we go to work.  But the truth is, God's work started before we even got into our vans in Savoy.  Stay tuned!

168 hours per week! PLENTY of time to Make a Difference

Maybe the most asked question I get is "how do you find time for ....?"  Well, sometimes I don't, but mostly whenever I can I fit it in.  Providing it is either work related or fits into my master plan for how I devote my free time.  A few year's ago I found myself overwhelmed by the numbers of things I was involved with.  I found myself saying yes too often, and hadn't learned when to say no.  It was then I created a sort of a master plan for sorting my commitments.  The master plan is simple. 

"I will devote my time to projects that provide opportunities for young people (roughly age 16-21) to live their dreams out loud."

I truly believe the hardest part of any one's life is in this age group.  In particular, I believe young men and women face more changes at the age of 18 and 19 than at any other period.  Of course there are many exceptions.  But this is my basic belief.  Maybe it was because it was such a hard period for me.  Graduating high school and the safety net of friends and teachers into the real world was a rocky period.  I believed life as I knew it was over when I graduated.  And I stressed endlessly about it. 

When I arrived at the University of Illinois the stress continued.  In the mid seventies it was legal for an 18 year old to drink, and I took advantage of the law!  And there were drugs, sex and about every distraction I could find all around me.  I made a lot of bad choices in that time, digging a deeper hole seemingly impossible to dig out of. 

Fortunately I met some great people as well.   People who would challenge me and shape me more than anyone else in my life.  These folks have remained close friends ever since and continue to impact my life.  I want to be one of those "people" whenever I can.

So back to the premise of this post...."how do I find time...?"

If my math is correct there are 168 hours in a week.  When I'm really busy I devote about 48 hours to sleeping.  That leaves about 120 hours give or take a few.  I spend in the neighborhood of 60 hours a week working, although I multi task with the best of them at work.  Still that leaves 60 hours unclaimed.  I think the difference between productive people and "very productive" people is how they divide the extra 60 hours a week.  For me I spend maybe 7 hours a week walking and playing with my dog.  I multi task again and listen to music while I walk her.  That hour a day, typically between 5 and 6 AM is when I plan the rest of my day.  I run through my "to do" list in my head and determine how I'm going to start the day at the office.

Usually another hour in the morning is spent catching up on the news of the day, watching any shows from the previous night I taped, or reading the paper.  It's my time to learn, reflect, relax.  So I'll count another 7 hours to this, leaving me about 46 hours to burn each week.  46 hours is a lot of time.
How I divide the rest depends on what show(s) I'm involved with, what is going on at church, what I need to do for my fraternity, Rotary projects, or other things I may have said "yes" to.

As I said earlier,  the quality of your life is determined by how you spend your "extra" 46 hours.  Are you doing things you love, or things you have to do?  Are you surrounded by people you love, or just people you tolerate?  For me at least, changing that time in my life has made all the difference in the world

Why do I do it?  Simply because it's fun.  I love seeing others realize they are capable of taking the first steps towards success.  I particularly love watching young people achieve their dreams and stand in the spotlight, no matter if that spotlight is on a stage, or in a chapter room, or in a youth project at church.  I've said before you don't keep track of the hours when you are doing the things you love.  I LOVE what I'm doing.

Do I make sacrifices to find the time?  Absolutely.  I could certainly make more money if I devoted that time to my job.  I could watch every Cubs game.  I could see Illini games in person.  I could travel to the places I have always wanted to see, China, Rome, Paris, Scotland and Pebble Beach.   If I die tomorrow and have never seen Rome, I still will have accomplished everything I wanted to achieve in life.  All I have ever wanted to do was make a difference in the lives of the people I meet everyday.  That takes time, and you know what?  I have plenty of that.

On Jean Valjean, Willie Wonka, Joseph and Tony

I absolutely love live music.  I especially love acoustic guitar, singer/songwriters and theater solos.  Yes, I said theater solos!  :)  There is something about standing in the spotlight and singing your heart out in front of a live audience that strips away any barriers you might put up most of the time.  It's kind of like kicking the winning field goal, or making the last second basket, or maybe striking out the hitter with the bases loaded in the 9th inning when you are up by one run.  You are so vulnerable and exposed when you are on stage in the spotlight with no one to back you up.
I have had the pleasure to work with many, many actors and actresses in my 6 years in theater.  Some are remarkably talented and some are just fun to be around.  Others maybe don't belong.  But that's true every where you go in life.  I want to tell a few stories about 4 of my favorites.
Jaise Allen:  I first met Jaise when he was a senior at Mahomet High School.  All four of the actors I'll talk about come from exceptional families, who balance respect for elders with encouragement for developing talent.  Jaise was cast as Jean Valjean from Les Miserables when we first met.  This was my first "back stage" assignment for the Champaign Urbana Theater Company.  I was a little in awe of everyone and everything those weeks.  I had never moved sets or organized the back stage before.  And every night Jaise would come out and literally bring the audience out of their seats when he sang "Bring 'em Home."  I was simply amazed an 18 year old could hold an audience in his hand for 3 hours every night.  But Jaise did it.
A year later I would co-produce Disney's Beauty and the Beast.  We cast Jaise as the Beast after a long staff debate about whether it would be easier to coach an actor who was kind and gentle into a mean SOB, or an SOB into a gentle beast.  We decided to cast Jaise as the Beast and the other as Gaston.  It was the right decision.  
Jaise is someone who's roots are deeply planted in his faith.  He and I had several discussions during rehearsal about the difficulty he had in finding the Beast's character.  While he was a great singer, delivering spoken lines was a relatively new experience.  Jaise drew deeply on his faith to find the right "attitude" and in the end, his performance of "If I can't have her" is one of my all time favorites.  That moment in the show when he "softens" his beastliness was so difficult, but perfect for him. 
I had the pleasure to work with Jaise three more times, first as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , then in Annie Get your Gun, and finally as Ren in Footloose.   All three times I was backstage, so I only enjoyed the performance and didn't help in any way to stage it.  Although in Footloose I was managing the microphones back stage and it was a nightly battle to get him connected.  Footloose features LOTS of dancing and Jaise would sweat through whatever protection we arranged for the mics.  I changed his mic, his mic pack, his batteries, whatever I could to make it work.  I even had a hair dryer in the dressing room to dry out the pack at intermission to "make it right."  And yet throughout it all, Jaise was calm, respectful and supportive.  Many actors would blow a gasket in similar situations.  Not Jaise.  Patient, respectful, talented and rooted in faith best describes this young man.
Jacob Lambert:
Until the summer of 2009 Jacob was the perennial "ensemble" actor.  Jacob walks with a noticeable limp.  Directors consistently cast him in roles where dancing wasn't overly dramatic as a result of the limp.  He was born with a form of palsy, leaving his body to grow faster than his muscles.  As a result his lower body strength has suffered.  And yet the strength of his character far exceeds the strength in his legs.  In the summer of 2008 he was cast as one of the brothers in Joseph.  This role required him to dance around the stage and jump on tables.  And it required him to sing.  Jacob has a rich singing voice, and he delivers every note in perfect pitch.  His performance in Joseph led the directors of the second version of CUTC's Les Mis to select him for the role of Jean Valjean. 
I can remember the staff let the actors who had been called back leave before the cast was selected.  As the discussion centered around Valjean, the music director realized he hadn't asked Jacob to sing the "high C" required for "Bring 'em home."  I quickly dialed Jacob's number, put him on speaker and said "Jacob, sing us a high c."  He did and he got the part.
As the rehearsing moved forward it became apparent Jacob was struggling lifting and carrying Marius (David Kessler) across the stage in a dramatic moment when he saves the young man's life.  Jacob could certainly carry David in his arms, but picking him up was a huge strain on Jacob's lower body.  Serving as technical director for the show, I consulted with our staff and determined we would have David lay on a large trunk instead of the floor so the lift wasn't quite as far.  After two days of working with the amended lift Jacob came to me and said "I prefer to lift him from the floor, the scene loses it's dramatic affect if we use the crate."  We did as he asked.  For the remaining days of rehearsal and each of the performances Jacob lifted and carried David across the stage without a hint of strain.  It was mind over matter, and he willed his legs to be at full strength for the shows. 
Shortly after the final performance Suzanne Aldridge and I were presenting "Encore: A Tribute to Kathy Murphy."  Our close friend Kathy had passed earlier in the year after a long and valiant battle against cancer.  In tribute to Kathy, her friends organized a scholarship to be awarded to high school seniors who had participated in theater.  Sue, John Stuff and several others, put together a collection of Kathy's favorite songs and had actors from the past and present perform them in her honor.  Sue had a vision of Jaise Allen and Jacob singing a sort of "dueling Valjeans" presenting one of Kathy's favorites, Bring 'em Home. 
Jacob was a bit intimidated as he had been one of the Les Miz children in the first performance and greatly admired Jaise as Valjean.  Singing beside him and with him was frightful.  A 3 minute ovation after the number was evidence he held his own.  By the way, Jacob was the first winner of the Kathy Murphy Scholarship.  She would have been proud!
Cullyn Murphy:
I first met Cullyn backstage at Oliver in the fall of 2006.  He was one of the street urchins in Fagan's gang.  I mentioned Kathy Murphy earlier and Cullyn is one of Kathy's nephews.  The Murphy family is a bit odd to say the least.  At least odd from the perspective they all love to be on stage and entertain.  Cullyn is no exception. 
Cullyn Murphy has a smile stretching literally ear to ear and bright white teeth to fill in the gaps.  He seemingly never has a bad day and makes everyone feel a little bit better just because he lives his life as if today might be his last.  As an actor and singer he reminds you a bit of Dick Van Dyke and perhaps Steve Martin.  Slapstick comes naturally to him.  And he has another wonderful voice making you realize he is not just a funny guy, but a talented actor.  Over the past 6 years I may have seen every show he has performed in at least once.  I have never been disappointed. 
In 2010 he was selected to play the role of Wille Wonka.  This was his first major lead role in community theater.  Yet he was perfectly prepared to take on the task.  While he may never be cast as a romantic leading man, Cullyn can mold a role with even the slightest bit of humor into a perfected sculpted masterpiece.  The rehearsals and performances of Willie Wonka were all made brighter by the fact Cullyn was there every day to make us laugh at the story, the characters and even ourselves.
CUTC performs their shows over a two week period, taking Monday through Wednesday off in the middle of 8 or 9 performances from the stage.  However many directors call the actors back in on Wednesday to brush up the lines and dance moves. 
There is a scene in Willie Wonka when Willie reaches into a small tv to grab Mike Teavee who has been shrunk by Willie's TV transporter and "transported" to the tv.   For the performance the director had placed a GI Joe with Mike's imitated costume into a small tv looking box for Willie to reach in and grab.  On the Wednesday walk through, unbeknownst to Cullyn, I had striped the doll of it's clothes and placed it in the box.  Cullyn got to that point of the show, reached into the box and said "and here we have Mike Teavee, magically transported into the tv and he's perfectly normal except he's......NAKED!!!"  The cast and crew broke up and he moved right along with the scene as if it were planned all along.. 
Kathy loved all her nieces and nephews, but I think she loved Cullyn just a little more.  He loves the theater almost as much as she did.  And it loves him back.
David Kessler:
A lot of people think David Kessler sings like an angel.  I disagree.  I think David Kessler is an angel sent by God to remind us of the wonderful gifts he has given each of us and the obligation we all have to develop those gifts.   In the six years I have been involved in theater David is the simply the best pure singer I have worked with. 
I first met David in that same Les Miz cast 6 years ago.  He, like Jacob, was one of the street children.  Three years later he would play the part of Marius.  In between he was cast as Hugo in Bye Bye Birdie.  As Hugo he was just another talented student with a decent voice and a bright smile.  Yet he had a certain quality in his voice that made me think he might be special someday. 
I have seen David in 10 or 15 roles.  He never misses a line, a note or a cue.  A true professional every minute he is on the stage. 
This summer CUTC is presenting West Side Story.  David's dream role is Tony. I can't imagine anyone else playing it.  When Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein wrote West Side Story they must have certainly had a voice like David's in mind.  I won't say I have never seen David upset, but I have never seen him upset for long.  He brings a sense of dignity, grace and commitment to each and every moment he is in a room or on a stage.  And....his voice...is well..... angelic.