Hi, my name is Caitlin Nosanov.  I am graduating in the summer of 2010 from Thornapple Kellogg High School.  I participate in a ton of sports like golf, softball, and hockey, which I play down in Detroit at the AAA level.  During the spring I was told to find a job for the summer.  I looked into applying for McDonalds at Gun Lake but expected no experience that would help move through my life.  I looked into a part time babysitting job; but it still left me short in what I hoped to earn and in what I hoped to learn from my job.  Finally, at one of the last Youth Advisory Council meetings of my Junior year I learned that there would be an intern position opening up for the summer of 2009.  It was a great opportunity, something that I couldn’t pass up, something that allowed me to explore more of my community and of myself.  And so it goes, I was the Barry Community Foundation’s Youth Advisory Council Intern for the summer of 2009. 
From this experience, I learned more about myself and of my community; like, did you know that the Youth Advisory Council was started in 1996 by a man who wanted more youth involvement in the communities around Michigan?  During this experience, I mailed hundreds of letters to businessmen around Barry County, I organized the Fall Retreat and the Fall Roof-Sit, and I got the opportunity to go to many different meetings.  I will carry this experience with me through the rest of my life, something that has taught me more creativity and respect for volunteers and for my community.
Every one can make a difference, every thing has an impact.  For anyone to go out and to help their communities is a great, honorable thing.  Something which I have seen first hand here at the Barry Community Foundation’s office- something which I will do more of and will aspire others to do more of.  For a great community isn’t about the buildings or the jobs around it, but of the people inside it.  They make a community a better place; something that Barry County has because it has a lot of those people, people with a heart for there community.