SOUTH ZONE YOUTH

YWD FLAG ROUTINE (FULL)

YWD Flag Routine (Full) from South Zone Youth on Vimeo.

YWD Flag Routine (Full) - Mirror from South Zone Youth on Vimeo.

YWD Flag Routine W/Count from South Zone Youth on Vimeo.

YWD Flag Routine W/Count - Mirror from South Zone Youth on Vimeo.

YWD Flag Routine W/No Flag from South Zone Youth on Vimeo.

YWD Flag Routine W/No Flag - Mirror from South Zone Youth on Vimeo.

The New Orleans Area 4-D leaders are totally committed to ensuring that no youth miss out on the festival in Philadelphia!
Please read the following determination shared by Jean, the New Orleans Area YWD leader.

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As area youth division leaders, Bert and I with the great support of the wonderful MD and WD area leaders, decided on a goal of sending 200 youth division to Philly from the New Orleans area. The reason behind this number is that membership wise we have about 100 youth division in our area, of course majority of them are not active. But we wanted to challenge this and bring double our membership of youth division. As our MD area leader said in a teleconference recently, we don't know half of these youth that we are bringing just yet, but we will meet them and introduce them to this wonderful practice towards July!

We are really determined and understand that the only possible way to bring 200 youth is to do SHAKUBUKU!
And when we thought we had reached a wall, with not any increases in youth signed up since April 28, after yesterday's RTE we had 5 more people sign up and put in their deposits, and 3 others who filled out an application!
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GO NEW ORLEANS AREA!!!!!!!!!!!

This video captures the spirit of participating in YMD Gymnastics!

East Territory Gymnastics Promo from T. OKATA on Vimeo.

YMD Gymnastics Stretching Regimen from T. OKATA on Vimeo.

In January 2010, the SGI-USA West Territory Youth Division participated in the Martin Luther King Day Parade in Los Angeles with over 900 youth in the pouring rain.

This amazing video documents the experience... and inspires us to continue to reach out to every single youth division member and guest in South Zone, to ensure that they don't miss out on the opportunity to join our historic battle with Sensei in Philadelphia!!!

LET'S DO OUR BEST!!! ROCK THE ERA!!!

2010 MLK Day Parade in Los Angeles from South Zone Youth on Vimeo.

Here is a flyer for the July 25th youth festival in Philadelphia!!! (Click on the image to see a larger version) There are two versions located on the right side of this page... one is the full color JPG version for those who would like to email it to their friends.

The other is a black and white PDF version, which will be easier to make copies of.

Regardless of which version you prefer, please share this flyer with all members and guests!!!

THANK YOU!!!!

The YMD Gymnastics group is an activity group with an extensive history - particularly at large youth festivals! Its primary focus of training is to instill a "never give up" attitude in the YMD that participate in this group!

Please use the following video for ideas and instructions on how to incorporate YMD Gymnastics at your local Rock The Era activities!

The following is from Bob, the East Territory Taiko group representative:

Greetings Taiko Drummers!

Here is the instructional video for the introduction to our Taiko Piece, to be performed in Philadelphia in July!!! It's a good amount to learn and practice tomorrow. Enjoy! :)

One thing to watch out for, which did not come out clearly in the video: The ">" symbols on the sheet music (located on the right side of this page) denote accents (when you hit the drum harder from having pulled your stick further away first).

Introduction to the Taiko performance (without instruction):

Exciting update from Tony, the East Territory Chorus representative...

Thanks so much for all your support for promoting the chorus. I do not have the final #'s yet, but I know each locale and the territory are diligently working at compiling all of this detailed information. I just wanted to provide a quick update on where we're at heading into our May RTE rehearsals.

As you know, the song "Rise" will be our finale. For this reason most likely at the festival we'll be singing this in 2 parts. I'm attaching the instrumental version this time for distribution (please see entry below as the instrumental version has been added). We will have sheet music before the Saturday rehearsal. I apologize for the delay, its 99% done.

In addition, with the support of Josh and Ebony, a second song has been chosen called, "If You're Out There." This was done by John Legend, but the lyrics come off as if written to be a gakkai song. It's really inspiring and I think being sung by hundreds of people will be so powerful in that arena in July. Here is a YouTube video of the song, with lyrics:

THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR EFFORTS!!! We are only 78 days away from our historic festival in Philadelphia!!!!!!!

The territory youth leaders have created a new application for the performing groups that are still being promoted. (Please see "Updated Performer Application" on the right side of this page.) This will make it clear that we are taking deposits only for performers in the YMD Brass Band, YWD Fife and Drum Corps, YMD/YWD Chorus, YWD Flag Corps (YWD Color Guard) and YMD Gymnastics (Athletics).

As a reminder, once a youth submits their deposit for one of these groups, they are CONFIRMED to be a performer... they would NOT be on a standby list. (Subject to change - at any possible time!)

And to reiterate, CURRENT standby youth can become CONFIRMED by specifying which of the above activity groups they will participate in.

How many more youth will your area encourage to "Dream Big" and "Change The World," by participating in this once in a lifetime festival and battle with Sensei?

In the 4/23/2010 World Tribune, Sensei shares, "Nichiren writes, 'Even one seed, when planted, multiplies' (WND, Vol. 2, p. 602). Seeds cannot sprout if they aren't sown. We need to sow one seed of the Mystic Law after another, sparing no effort. It is through such continuous, tireless actions that kosen-rufu will advance."

thank you,
South Zone Team

EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!!

Josh, the East Territory Young Men's Division leader, informed us tonight that there are still available spots open for the following activity groups:

YWD:
Fife and Drum Corps
Color Guard

YMD:
Athletics (Gymnastics)
Brass Band

YWD/YMD:
Chorus

What does this mean? First of all, for the youth in our zone currently on the standby list, they can immediately move themselves to the "confirmed" list by choosing one of the above groups!!! HOW AWESOME FOR THESE YOUTH!!!!!!! (2 YWD from Southeast Area automatically moved from standby to confirmed tonight because they had specified Color Guard as their activity group!!!)

Also, it means that the promotion window for these activity groups is, once again, OPEN-------!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This means that we can go back to all of the youth that may have missed out on the opportunity to sign up before the 4/28 deadline!!! Of course, the territory could stop promotions at any time, so we have to encourage these youth to sign up for one of the above activity groups TODAY to ensure they have an opportunity to participate at the festival!

"Without young people, we will have no future. Such things as mentor and disciple, truth and justice, and vistory will be no more than empty phrases. We risk losing the precious struggle for kosen-rufu. Let's open the future by bringing many more young people into our movement." (-Daisaku Ikeda, originally published in the 3/31/06 WT, p. 3)

Risha Hwang, Suwanee North District Women's Division Leader (Atlanta North Region, Northeast Area, Gwinnett Chapter), shares her personal experience, and how her district was able to encourage 20 youth division to submit deposits to attend the East Territory Youth Festival, to be held on July 25th in Philadelphia.