Simon Youth Foundation staff and students 'Get Connected' with nationwide supporters

We've blogged many times before about the crucial support Simon Youth Foundation receives from the Simon Property Group, and this week the Foundation had an opportunity to meet and thank so many who have done such great work for us.

The 2012 Simon National Conference, brought together staff members from every Simon mall, center, and outlet throughout the world for three days of presentations and events. More than 1,000 attended the event, which was titled Get Connected.

For our part, SYF used a feature presentation to connect Simon employees with our mission and the impact their support has on at-risk students nationwide. In 2011 alone, efforts by Simon employees out in the field raised an amazing $1.7 million for Simon Youth Academies and Simon Youth Scholarships. That's enough to fund the entire scholarships program this year or support 1,700 Academy students through their graduation day. 

Mary Madden told Simon employees
that her SYF experience has made her
"an agent of change in her environment"

The SYF presentation included a video featuring Mary Madden, a graduate of the Simon Youth Pacers Academy at Washington Square. Mary's story brought the audience to a standing ovation. Madden, who is currently a sophomore at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, also appeared on stage to thank Simon employees for their support.

SYF Board of Directors Chairperson Deborah Simon and Foundation President and CEO J. Michael Durnil, Ph.D., handed out Ignite Hope Awards to the Simon properties that best supported SYF in 2011 in terms of fundraising and awareness building. You can view the award winning properties as they were listed on slides from the SYF presentation.

We also had a great time sponsoring photo and flipbook booths at the conference's Opening Night Reception, which was hosted at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the home of the Indiana Pacers. You can see the fun that the Simon folks had creating their flipbooks in the photo slideshow below as well as some other conference pictures.

You also can see how the conference action unfolded by reading the Twitter stream at the hashtag #snc12.