Meet the YR Staff: 10 Questions with Bailey Daniels

Hometown: Evansville, IN

Title: TEENPOWER Program Coordinator

Time involved with YR: 10 years (staff member since February 2018)

Bailey (left) and YR alumna and volunteer Julie Bowman at High School TEENPOWER 2017

Q. Though you’ve been involved with YR since middle school, you’ve just recently joined the staff as TEENPOWER Program Coordinator. What are you most looking forward to about your first TEENPOWER in this role?
A. I think having more of a back seat approach, which is very different than what I’ve had before. I have looked up to Emily and JBrown, how they have always let the Youth Staff take full control and College Staff and Adult Staff, and they’re more of a very last resort thing. So, I’m excited to get that new experience of not being the first in charge, not second in charge, not even really third in charge, but letting everyone else do everything and then kind of just getting to watch it happen… That is part of the work is letting them do it, kind of just like letting go and letting them take the reins on it. I think I liked being in charge when I was on Youth Staff and even on College Staff being the fall back, so it’ll be difficult for me, but I’m excited to challenge myself in that sense and just to trust the Youth Staff and the staff to do it because I know they’ll do a good job.

Bailey (center) with friends and fellow YR alumni Lily Casavant and Jared Diaz at High School TEENPOWER 2016

Q. How has Youth Resources, and more specifically TEENPOWER, shaped the person you are today?
A. It’s really helped me come out of my shell. In high school, especially, I was really nervous of what everyone thought in early high school, and I was too scared to join things that I wanted to do, especially if I didn’t have a buddy right away doing it with me. So theater, that was something I always wanted to do in high school… sophomore year I wanted to do it and I took a very back seat approach to it. I just did hair and makeup, but I knew I wanted to be part of it. So then after being on Youth Staff that sophomore year, my junior year I actually went for it. I didn’t really know anyone else who was auditioning, I just did it because it helped me just do what I wanted to do and be my own person and not rely on or really look at what other people are doing but just being like, I want to do this — I don’t care if it’s cool, I don’t care if it’s not cool, I’m just gonna do it because it’s something that I want to do. So I did it. I ended up getting a part, and it was really cool. And then I did all the shows after that. So that’s one thing that I think Youth Resources really helped me understand was just being my own person and going after what I want to go after. And it might not be the most popular thing to do, it’s definitely not always the most comfortable thing to do, but just doing what you want to do and that has been something that I’ve tried to keep in the forefront of my decision-making in college, too, just getting involved in things I wanted to get involved with and learning the stuff in high school with Youth Resources helped me join IU Dance Marathon in college because that wasn’t something that a ton of my friends were doing, but it helped me meet hundreds of other people that were doing the same thing that I was doing and just going after it.

Bailey (far right) at a YR trip to the Holiday Drive-In in Reo

Q. As a big movie fan, what kinds of movies do you enjoy the most and would you rather watch them in a theater or at the drive in?
A. I like feel good movies and Disney movies, obviously, big Disney fan. Feel good movies and ones that will make me laugh a lot, I really like those. I don’t really like to get sad in the theater because I cry. I went and saw Infinity War from Marvel and cried like four times, and that’s not really a sad, emotional movie… But feel good movies, ones that I can laugh about I really like those. And I kind of like ones that I can predict a little bit. I like to go to movies with people who like to talk during the movie just a little bit and predict throughout the movie. That’s always really fun.

[Theater vs. drive-in] The drive-in I think, that is always really fun because you get to cuddle up with all your friends on blankets and be outside, that’s always a unique experience. But I wouldn’t want to go to the drive in all the time because I would like to keep it special for special occasions. So, I’m kind of glad the drive-in is seasonal because then it makes it more special.

Bailey (right) with YR volunteer Kellie Forney (left) and YR Executive Director Laura Ferguson (center)

Q. If money was no object and you had no other commitments, how would you spend a weekend?
A. Probably pack up a bunch of my friends and go to Florida, spend some time at the beach and then go to Disney… I don’t know why, but I’ve been to Disney three times this year. It just happened. I went with Kellie [Forney] and Ferg. Kellie wanted to go because The Great Movie Ride was closing, so she wanted to have one last hurrah and get to go, so that was a really fun trip… And then when I went to school, a bunch of girls on my IUDM committee, we were like, we should go to Disney because one girl knows a guy that works there and he has three guest passes. So, we paid for gas and an Airbnb, and we had two free days at Disney, which is super cool… And then Jenna Martin and I went to Florida with her mom on a business trip because they have a condo down there and we thought, “Oh, we’ll just go and hang out for a couple days”. And then we ended up being offered discounted Disney tickets so we were like, “yeah, we’re gonna go”. So I think that would be a super fun thing to do if money wasn’t an issue, just bring as many friends as I could, go to the beach and relax because I love the beach and warm weather and then just go run around Disney for a couple days. I think that would be so fun.

Q. To borrow a question you posed to the TEENPOWER adult staff at a recent training, what gets you out of bed in the morning?
A. I answered my friends and my family because I love getting to spend as much time as possible with people I love. So I love when my mom and my sister are home, getting to hang out with them, and then any day that I have plans with friends or just I’m excited to make plans, especially now that the weather’s gotten nice. I love getting ice cream at Rivertown, walking around at the Newburgh riverfront and then just driving around listening to music on a good day. That’s always fun. But also, this is gonna be cheesy, but this job, cause this is something that I genuinely have always wanted to do, and it makes me really happy to be in this position. And I’m excited to come into work every day, so this is something that makes it easy to get out of bed in the morning and go to work and spend all my time during the day here. I love it.

Bailey and Ferg

Q. Who is someone you look up to and why?
A. I really look up to Fergie… she’s just someone who’s always so kind to people and she makes people feel comfortable and loved in that she’s genuinely interested in people. That’s something that I remember when I was a 7th or 8th grader at middle school camp. I had just gotten a cell phone, and I somehow had Fergie’s number, and it was cool because she would text me sometimes and be like, “Hey, what are you doing? I just made cookies with my mom.” And I was like, “I’m so cool, Fergie texted me.” I didn’t have to be bothering her, but she chose to talk to me. So that is something that I look up to in the sense of making people feel special but doing it in such a way that it’s genuine and that you’re actually interested in the other person and just constantly making people feel comfortable and loved and being kind toward everyone. That’s just something that I really look up to, and I hope to have even half of the ability to do that that she does.

Bailey Daniels, proud 2018 Indiana University graduate!

Q. As you look back on your college career at IU (Bailey graduated with a degree in nonprofit management and a minor in fundraising on May 5, 2018), what are you most proud of?
A. I think I’m most proud of keeping my grades pretty well. I’m graduating with honors through SPEA (IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs), which is pretty cool. I didn’t expect that to happen until I got the email, so that’s exciting. But I’m also most proud of the fundraising I did for IU Dance Marathon. Over the three years I was involved, I raised a little over $8,000, so pretty proud of that. I never thought I would break even $3,000, but my last year I broke $3,000, so that was pretty cool and just something I’m really proud of. I never thought I would be passionate about fundraising that much, but when given a cause that I really care about and the encouragement, and just learning how to fundraise was really fun… That’s not something that I am the most comfortable with, is asking for money. But when it was for other people, it was easy to do, and I’m proud that I did it and got out of my comfort zone.

Bailey at IU Dance Marathon

Q. What is your favorite place to eat in Bloomington and what do you order?
A. There’s two places. One is Bloomington specific, so Mother Bear’s pizza. So good. I think I went there for the first time, it was the summer going into my freshman year. Ferg took my friend Favene and Kelly and she kind walked us around campus cause Kelly and I were going to IU and Favene wanted to come to hang out. She took us to Mother Bear’s. And the pizza just looks picturesque…it’s just so cheesy and so, so good and mouth-watering. But, I’m pretty boring. I usually get just pesto sauce and just pepperoni and mushroom pizza. Not exciting, but they do have some good pizzas and exciting ones. I’m a picky eater so I don’t venture out very much. But the other one it’s a restaurant called BJ’s, which I think is not Bloomington specific. It’s a chain, but my friends and I like to go there and order a pizookie. It’s a pan cookie with ice cream on top, and they have all different kinds, so there’s a peanut butter marshmallow one. It’s not good for you, but it’s really good to eat. It tastes really good.

Q. Would you rather send a heartfelt text or a heartfelt letter?
A. Heartfelt letter. Those are more fun, and I’ve recently gotten into writing a lot of snail mail — a bunch of pen pals. But it’s fun for me to get to draw on the letter. I got a bunch of gel pens and colorful stationary, so that’s always really fun. But, I think it makes people more excited to get something in the mail, and it’s a little bit more heartfelt that I sat down, wrote it out, paid for a stamp, sent it your way. That means a lot to me when people write back or send me something in the mail. So, it’s fun for me to get to send something in the mail to other people.

Q. If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A. Honestly, I think “Stand by Me” by The Temptations. I really like that song and variations of the song. There’s a version of it where it’s people singing on the street with, I don’t even know what the instrument is, the bass, I think, and they’re singing it, and it’s so good. But that is one I think I would never get tired of. It’s one of my favorite songs. It reminds me of The Sandlot movie kind of, and I love that movie. I like old music like that.

(Bailey was interviewed by YR Development Director Erin Meyer)