Spotlight! India Mcfadden

This week, we decided to spotlight the talented India McFadden. She is a talented musician who had a wonderful opportunity to share what she loves with an audience!

On a whim, India decided to try out for Kpop Star Season 2.  Kpop Star is a music show the equivalent of American Idol in Korea.  After spending the day in LA at a High School waiting in anticipation for her turn to register and try out,  she finally made it into the audition room to sing and play her guitar in front of four judges.  Her song of choice was “If I die Young”  by the band Perry.   The judges seemed pleased by her performance.  After the first song, they put her on the spot and asked if she could sing additional songs to show her range.  After her performance the judges discussed amongst themselves while India stood nervously waiting for the verdict.  Happily, she made it through the second round, which meant another performance that same night.  Only about 40 people made it to the second round.  After performing, they told the performers they would get a call later that week if they made it on to the show.  One week later, India got the happy phone call saying she made it and would be traveling to Korea to participate in the show. 

Late October of 2012, India left with her Mom to travel to Korea for the show not knowing when she would return.  Before the show started they got to tour around and just have fun together. 

India didn’t make it past the next round, but that was quite OK with her.  It was a fun day of performing and meeting new people.  And when the show part of her trip was through, India and her Mom were able to travel around and just enjoy themselves.  It was a trip of a life time.  

India is a beautiful inspiration. She is young, courageous, and follows her passions. 

Youth Marathon Runners

Not too many people have ever thought about running 26.2 miles, let alone actually tried it. In the past few years over fifteen youth from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) from the Mission Viejo area have done just that. With ages ranging from 12 to 18, these teenagers have spent months training and preparing to run a race most people only hear about.

For some of them it started as a way to stay in shape, though they now say it's provided opportunities to make lasting friendships that go well beyond the desire to stay fit.

That's not to say everything's always easy. With a majority of marathon races being scheduled on Sundays, many of these runners have had to face additional challenges. Taylor Meurs described an experience she and several others faced a few years ago while training with their team We Rock.

The team’s planned race unfortunately fell on a Sunday that year. Wanting to keep their Sabbath worship, Taylor and several other teammates opted to run a different race, one set on a Saturday. After registering bad news hit again—the Saturday race had been cancelled. Discouraged, but determined to meet their goal of finishing a marathon, these youth decided to sign-up for another Saturday marathon scheduled a full two months earlier than originally planned.  Not only did they have to ramp up their training program and train harder than they had imagined, but they also had to do it alone, since their remaining teammates were not affected by the change.  Taylor remarked how great of a challenge it was to prepare for the race, but that all of them were so glad to have completed the marathon as well as fulfilled their Sabbath commitments.  What a great example for all of us!

So how do these kids do it? How do they stay motivated during the endless hours of practice and the 26 miles on race day? A few mentioned a team mantra they’d repeat to themselves, “I feel good, I feel great, this is fun!” Others mentioned the help of teammates and coaches driving them on. Some just knew that they’d already gone as far as they had, so they weren't turning back now.

Needless to say these are some pretty amazing youth right here in our community.

 Kira, Christy, and Karter Farris
 

 Noah Meurs and Jane Fitzpatrick