I ran into Candace Daly at the grocery store the other day
and we had a chance to talk a little bit about some of the things that we have
done together over the years. It made me
think about some of the things that she has done in the past that have
dramatically impacted my life. I guess
that she has become a logical next entry into my blog.
I met Candace initially because I was friends with her
daughter Danica in high School. In fact I
remember the first time that I ever went to Danica’s home. It was Halloween 1998 and I was a 15 year old
boy with nothing to do. My step-sister Stefanie had plans to go to Danica’s
house with several other girls. When
they came to pick her up they felt compassion on the sad teenage boy that had
no place to be and they insisted that I come along. From this time forward I got to know Danica
and it lead to me meeting her mom.
During those high school years Candace was the Vice Chair
and Chair of the Davis County Republican Party.
At one point during my Junior year the Davis County Republican party had
the thought that they needed to get young people more involved. So Candace decided to have Danica invite some
of her friends to the Annual Lincoln Day Dinner. Because Danica knew that I was interested in
politics, we had just returned from a DC field trip. I was invited to attend the dinner along with
a few other friends.
Candace was kind enough to put me at the head table with the
Rob Bishop who was the head of the Utah Republican Party at the time. It was my first experience being at a
political event, my first time being at a Republican Party activity of any
kind. I got to sit with Rob Bishop and talk
about the party, I got to see his laid back style and I got to eat some catered
bbq.
The next year the Candace recruited the Viewmont High School
Madrigals to perform at the Lincoln Day Dinner.
Certainly I was not one of them, but many of my friends were and I asked
if I could come along, partly to support them as well as to get another taste
of the politics. By this time I was
already serving as the student member of the Davis School Board and so I had
started to meet a lot of the movers and shakers in the county. So when I went to the dinner I had people to
interact with and people to talk to. It was
a very different experience and my madrigal friends were impressed that I knew
four or five folks in the crowd. Again
Candace got involved and worked to place me at the table of Senator Bob Bennett. I had met Senator Bennett that summer while
in DC as a participant in the American Legion Boys Nation program. We had had a chance to sit in his little
office under the capitol for thirty minutes talking about the Senate, what it
was like to be part of history every day and how the inside baseball of the
Senate worked. So being able to sit with
him again for a couple of hours was a real joy.
We were able to talk about the challenges of raising a family in DC and
how Senators and Congressmen with younger children handled it. We talked about his wife’s involvement with
other Senate wives and how they hosted ambassadors and participated in
charities. It was a great dinner with many
conversations that I will not soon forget.
Simply from these two events I could extrapolate the great
impact that Candace Daly has had on my life.
However it did not end there. In 2002
during the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City Candace was responsible to help find
some volunteers to play host at a political gathering being hosted at the
capitol by Governor Mike Leavitt. Again Candace
called upon me to come and help. That
day at that is event was when I had my first opportunity to mingle with
ambassadors, and royalty from around the world.
I was an intern for Attorney General Mark Shurtleff at the time and I
was able to slip into a VIP line with him which allowed me to meet Mayor Rudy Giuliani
(along with Super Dale from Totally Awesome Computers). To top it off I got my picture taken with
Miss America.
Again this alone was an experience that changed my life in
some way. It gave me a taste of what the
world of politics and even global politics was like. But this was not all Candace did for me that
day. Her father, a retired member of the
Utah Legislature, was invited to the Governor’s Closing Ceremonies party at the
Utah Museum of Fine Arts. He was in a
wheelchair at the time and needed a lot of assistance. Candace asked if I would
take her place at the party and help to drive him there, assist him around the
event and bring him back. This meant
that I got to go to one of the most exclusive events during the Olympic Games. I got to meet Mayor Giuliani again (remember
this was a few months after 9/11). I got
to mingle with elected officials from around the state. I had my first taste of caviar. I heard the Ferry Family Fiddlers perform. And most importantly I was a few hundred yards
from the Closing Ceremonies and was able to see the fireworks going off all
around me in a moment of great pride in our state and country. This was an experience that I could not have
paid for, and could not have otherwise dreamed of attending had Candace not intervened
in my life.
During this time Candace ran for Vice Chair of the State Republican
Party. She invited me to be one of her
nominators. So I had the opportunity, as
a young teenager, to stand up in front of the State Convention for the
Republican Party and give a 30 second speech.
This may same like as much fun as playing in a lion’s den to some
people, but for me it was an incredible experience as a young man. At that convention she also had me serve as
one of her poll watchers where I was able to be part of a very serious process
which included a very small margin of victory for a different candidate.
Years later Candace would stand up in a Republican Party
Senate District meeting and encourage people to vote for me as Senate District
Chair. She and I would work together at
several party organizing conventions and at special elections meetings. Much of which can again be attributed to her
kind acts while I was a teenager.
It is hard to explain exactly how these experiences have
impacted me. They have certainly made me
more comfortable volunteering to be involved in local government and the
political process. They certainly made
me more excited to participate in these kinds of events and activities. I would later help plan Lincoln Day Dinners like
the ones that Candace invited me to. But
the impact was and is greater than all of these. I have gained confidence through these
experiences that have carried over into all aspects of my life. I have gained perspective about the lives of
those who serve in politics, perspective that has dramatically changed the way
that I interact with elected officials. These
experiences have shaped me beyond just the political scene. They have had a dramatic impact on me in
everything that I do.
I was a high school kid with shaggy hair and Candace Daly
took a chance at including me and that has made a big difference in my
life. So thank you to Candace. Perhaps I will be able to help some young
person have the types of experiences that you gave to me those many years ago.
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