{"id":58816,"date":"2020-02-27T09:08:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T16:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=58816"},"modified":"2020-02-27T18:55:30","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T01:55:30","slug":"up-with-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/up-with-people\/","title":{"rendered":"International traveling group Up With People shares, serves and sings their way to a happier world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michelle McLoughlin <\/strong>defines herself as a \u201ccloset hippy.\u201d So, after graduating from Northern Arizona University in the late 1980s and not yet ready to return home to Tucson, she decided to follow a lifelong dream: Become a nomad and join Up With People\u2014a group of young adults from around the globe who travel the world promoting messages of peace, love and hope.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Up With People’s current cast celebrates MLK day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She learned about the group as a child, and after seeing a few of their shows, knew this was where she belonged.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just so moved and inspired by this group that included so many of my passions: people, international communities, music and of course, travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Started in the 1960s as a response to the turbulent times, Up With People focuses on bridging global communities by engaging in service projects and staying with host families at each of their tour stops. This year, Flagstaff is one of them.<\/p>\n

After more than 20 years, Up With People<\/a> returns to northern Arizona for shows on March 6 and 7.<\/p>\n

Seeing the world<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Using buses, planes, trains and even the occasional boat, traveling is a staple of Up With People. The cast stays with locals at each tour location, enhancing their global connections and giving them insight into how different cultures live.<\/p>\n

Another NAU alumna and Flagstaff resident, Michelle Galloway<\/strong>, was on the same cast as McLoughlin.<\/p>\n

\"Galloway<\/a>
Galloway poses with cast mates in Sweden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe diversity in the people we met and stayed with and the things we did were some of my favorite parts of being on the road,\u201d Galloway said. \u201cOne of my hosts was an addiction recovery home for youth in Norway. I was proposed to on the streets of the USSR during the white nights (an annual celebration in the summer when the sun never sets). I milked cows each morning on a farm in Minnesota. I went snowmobiling in Saskatchewan, Canada. We spent a day dancing and speaking with hearing-impaired students at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self-proclaimed \u201ctravel fiend\u201d Janelle Axton is a member of the current cast coming to Flagstaff. Her parents met while traveling with Up With People and she has grown up immersed in the mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile in Thailand, one of my fellow cast member\u2019s host family took him to an ostrich farm. At the farm, the workers told him that he should ride an ostrich. Thinking this must be a cultural moment that he could not miss out on, he of course said yes. The workers left and came back grinning with helmets and pads in hand that they strapped on him. They mounted him on the ostrich and off it went, running across the fields with the workers chasing after him. After they finally reigned in the ostrich, they laughed and said, \u2018crazy American, no one ever rides ostriches!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The host family experience in Up With People is a symbiotic one. McLoughlin said the families have the opportunity to meet a young person from somewhere else and learn about their backgrounds, dreams, goals and families. Both parties can keep in touch, maintaining those connections for a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Galloway saved a quote from her host family book: \u201cSharing our home with you was one of the best things to happen to us. To have someone step into your life and leave such a lasting and indelible mark from being such a positive, vivacious and beautiful person is a joy. And enjoy we did!\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Galloway and McLoughlin attribute their successful transition to life on the road with Up With People to their time living on campus at NAU before they began traveling.<\/p>\n

\"Axton
Cast mates with longtime host family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cLiving in a dorm away from my family made the reality of being away from home for a year less difficult. We had limited access to call home. We had to send actual snail mail letters and call our families collect if we wanted to talk briefly, similar to college,\u201d McLoughlin said. \u201cAnd of course, my major was Spanish, so that helped too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having been on both sides of hosting, Axton remembers her time with Miho, a cast member her family hosted from Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiho moved out to California because of her experience with us, and still joins my family for Thanksgiving every single year and truly feels like another sister to me!\u201d Axton said.<\/p>\n

Giving back<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Volunteering in the communities the cast visits is a core tenet of Up With People. According to their website<\/a>, a cast member will participate in more than 150 hours of community service per semester, engaging the community in Up With People\u2019s mission to empower youth.<\/p>\n

\"Giving
Cast member engages with community during service project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThrough community service and host family stays, cast members gain a more genuine view of the community they are visiting, rather than just traveling through,\u201d Axton said. \u201cIt is incredible to see how many hearts the group touches during just one week, and how appreciative people are of someone who simply shows they care about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galloway shared that at times the service projects were difficult, like when her team worked to engage with elderly people in a memory care unit or speak in front of an entire Rotary Club of men in Denmark at such a young age. However, she said she grew from her experiences and has since made volunteering a staple in not only her life, but also her family\u2019s.<\/p>\n

While in Flagstaff, the cast will partner with various organizations, including NAU. The show will benefit AzCASE and Launch Flagstaff, and the cast will facilitate classroom workshops for grades K-12 in local schools.<\/p>\n

\"Michelle<\/a>
McLoughlin poses with cast mates 32 years later<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the workshops, titled \u201cWe are Many, We are One,\u201d focuses on different ways to share stories about each other\u2019s background through music and games. Another workshop is art-based, where students will design their own personal flags before combining theirs with fellow classmates into a giant classroom flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngaging in service projects provided some of the most profound moments of traveling with Up with People. Instead of simply traveling through a city and only seeing the tourist sites, we are meeting with people in the community on a much deeper level,\u201d Axton said. \u201cWe get to help all over the world and really get to see a part of their culture and lives that many people do not get to experience. We also get to leave cities confident in the knowledge that our group made a positive difference in each place we visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLoughlin agreed that having the opportunity to make an impact through volunteering alongside her friends was meaningful. She pointed out a verse from Up With People\u2019s theme song: \u2018If more people were for people, all people everywhere, there would be a lot less people to worry about and a lot more people who care.\u2019<\/p>\n

Putting on a show<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Up
Cast members perform in show.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two-hour performance, which Axton describes as a high-energy mix of pop songs, international numbers and Up With People original music, has hits like \u201cUp With People,\u201d \u201cCan We Sing a Song of Peace?\u201d and McLoughlin\u2019s favorite, \u201cWhat Color is God\u2019s Skin?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show touches on topics relevant to this generation such as intercultural understanding, bullying and mental health,\u201d Axton said. \u201cIt\u2019s unlike anything you will ever see, and the goal is to have each person walk out feeling motivated and hopeful about this world we all share.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou leave the auditorium feeling happy, energized, inspired and hopeful about the possibility for global change,\u201d McLoughlin said. \u201cThe songs in the show give me goose bumps almost every single time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cast, which has 85 members, is responsible for more than just performing. Each member also takes on a different role in the production process, like set-up and tear-down, pre-event promotions or being a multilingual master of ceremony, which McLoughlin filled a number of times in various languages, including English, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.<\/p>\n

\"Newspaper\"<\/a>
Newspaper clipping features Michelle Galloway and fellow 80s cast member.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI also was one of the people who sang\u2014but definitely not near a microphone\u2014did \u2018swing claps\u2019 (a classic Up With People move) and danced with the big group during the musical numbers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Like McLoughlin, Galloway also didn\u2019t have a background in performing arts, so she served as part of the advance team\u2014a group that would travel ahead of the cast to set up the city with service projects and engage with host families.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I sang and danced, but I also ran a lot of spotlights, held many banners and even jumped out of a box for a magic show,\u201d Galloway said.<\/p>\n

She continues to be involved with Up With People, acting as the site director in Flagstaff for a youth summer camp, Up With People Junior<\/a>. She is excited the cast is returning to the high country to perform.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp With People hasn’t been to Flagstaff in over 20 years and with only one cast on the road per year, it may take them another 20 to return. Don’t miss the show or the opportunity to get involved. It can change your life, and even if it doesn’t, it will be one week of extreme optimism\u2014and who doesn’t need that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The shows will be held at 7 p.m. March 6 and 7 at Prochnow Auditorium. Tickets for both shows can be purchased online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>McKenzie McLoughlin | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-4789 |\u00a0McKenzie.McLoughlin@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle McLoughlin defines herself as a \u201ccloset hippy.\u201d So, after graduating from Northern Arizona University in the late 1980s and not yet ready to return home to Tucson, she decided to follow a lifelong dream: Become a nomad and join Up With People\u2014a group of young adults from around the globe who travel the world…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":58807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}