I Mustache You A Question? Will You Vote For TY?

A few weeks ago, Tyson came home from school and said, "Mom, I want to run for Vice President."  I honestly couldn't have been MORE elated.  He is succeeding and involved in ways I so desperately wanted to in school, but I just didn't have the courage.  Looking back, I'd kill to do my childhood all over again because I would totally do things differently.  My response was, "REALLY?!?!?!"  He concluded, "YES!" So, I signed all of the paperwork and made sure that we stuck to all of the deadlines. Ty had to meet certain requirements, in order to even be able to run, some which included, 1. Each student had to be on the A/B honor roll., 2. Each student had to exemplify a good standing with his/her student body. etc. etc.  I think there were 7 or 8 requirements and each student's teacher had to sign off, on their first application, verifying that they met each requirement. The student couldn't just say, "Yeah, I meet all of those requirements."

Check: Ty met the requirements.  Mrs. Zimmerman signed off on part #1 of the application process.  

The second requirement was to fill out an application, at school, which asked the students, running for office, specific questions about WHY they desired to take on the position they were running for and what made them a good candidate etc... When Ty came home, he told me that he had filled out his second application.  His answers were really awesome, one of which I was SOOOO proud of, especially since I know I wasn't there to answer the questions for him, and the answers were his own.

What makes you a good candidate?  (the below answer is NOT exact because I never saw the application, but here's what he remembers) "I am kind to others and I will share the gospel with them." LOL!! So sweet.  This is the reason we want him in public school.  Although he is yet saved, we know, he is still planting seeds and teaching others about Jesus.

Check: Application #2 filled out.  I sure wish I had a copy of this application.  I had requested one and Ty left it on the bus.  Oh well....

The next requirement was to make (2) campaign posters.  They were to be hung near the cafeteria and anywhere around the school, where students could see them, "JUST NOT IN THE BATHROOMS."  The weekend before the posters were allowed to be hung, our family rattled off all kinds of slogans that we thought would be catchy, for Ty's campaign.  Out of all of the slogans we came up with, TOGETHER, Ty had the final say as to what he wanted his slogans to be.  He chose:

"Ty's The Guy For Vice President"  

AND

"I Mustache You A Question, Will You VOTE For Ty?"

A special thank you to Ashely Harris for her superb handwriting! 

I was pleased with the slogans Ty decided on and as you will see later, so were the students at Fort Lewis Elementary School.  Due to the mustache slogan, we were able to involve the mustache theme daily, after his posters went up.  Ty was so into it.  There literally was NO arm twisting.  He incorporated the mustache slogan into his daily attendance/attire, at school, by wearing a mustache each day. Each additional day, Ty added a NEW mustache item. See below...

 Day #1 

Ty wore a "stash" and always sported a Fort Lewis t-shirt... school pride.

Darren and I almost fell to the floor when we came to his school, for the SOL party, and saw that at 1:00 pm Ty was STILL wearing his mustache.

The first day, I walked Ty into school looking like the above and the students/teachers thought it was hysterical.  Two comments stuck out to me as something worth mentioning:

1. Emily Lancaster said, "Ty, are you a man now?"

2. Principal, Ms. K - "Did you forget to shave this morning?"

 Day #2

A "stash" and mustache glasses.

Day #3 

Mustache rings. We had plans to pass these out to the student body, along with some other FUN ideas we had, but one of the rules was "NO CAMPAIGN pass outs!" Must follow those rules.

Day #4 

Mustache necklaces.

Day#5 

Speech Day - A homemade slogan T-shirt & a groucho "stash"/glasses set.  The mustache actually had a wind up feature. The mustache moved up and down.  It was so funny!

On speech day, Ty's "BIGGEST" fans also sported a mustache shirt, as well as, a mustache.  HYSTERICAL!

I couldn't decide which photo, of the twins, I loved the best, so... sorry for the photo overload here.

Ty hung one of his poster's, ALONE, in the cafeteria, for all the students to read during lunch.  The other students hung them outside of the cafeteria. This set Ty apart.  LOVE IT!

The other poster he chose to hang outside of his third grade classroom.  There is a ton of traffic in this area of the school, so Ty felt it was a good spot. This was his baby, so I didn't want to take over.  AND OH, by the way, after we did the poster below, Ty said, "Mom, this poster seems a little plain.  Can we add something?"  I said, "Sure buddy, but what?"  He said, "Can we add a bible verse!"  Again, I am so proud.  HE IS PLANTING seeds without even KNOWING it.

Check: Slogans created.  Posters made.  Posters hung! Slogan being advertised/worn daily.

The final requirement was to prepare a speech and to read it allowed in front of the entire student body.  Afterwards, the students would then vote on who they wanted their Historian, Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President and President to be. As previously mentioned, Ty chose to run for VP, as did 4 other classmates of his, so he definitely had some competition. 

Check: Speech written.  Willing candidate ready, as ever, to give his speech to an anticipated audience. 

Above: Ty sits, in the audience, and listens to the other candidates' speeches. His classmates laugh away, just like the entire week, because of his final mustache "prop".

I sat in the audience, so excited, yet beyond nervous for this brave, 9 year-old-boy.  The VP candidates were called to the stage. Ty went last (if I recall correctly) and stood in front of the entire school body (parents, students, teachers, and other staff members) and gave his speech.  

The speech deserves it's OWN post.  If I could have planned the PERFECT audience reaction, I could NOT have done a better job than they! It was PRICELESS and I captured it ALL on camera.  I cannot WAIT to show it to you.  I hope to have it posted tonight.  Just waiting on Darren to upload it from our video camera.  Check back in a little bit.... he took the boys on a bike ride.  

I hope you enjoyed the details THUS far.