Letter to Mr. Schoor

Dear Mr. Schorr at Cox Cable,


I’m writing this letter to thank you and Cox Enterprises to express my appreciation and abundant gratitude on how wonderful and fulfilling the experience I had as being a member of the Cox Cable Internet Safety Tween Summit. My experience began after being appointed as your representative from Nevada, and being prepared and readied by Mrs. Stephanie Stallworth prior to leaving for Washington. Then my mother and I were graciously received and met by Mrs. Stallworth at Regan International airport last Monday July 20th, and she walked me through every step of the next four days preparing me, educating me, and directing me through the greatest experience I have had thus far in my life (my trip to Washington, which was my first, and the Internet Safety Conference.)

Day number one: Monday, after checking into our hotel and then on to a wonderful tour of our Nations capitol which included: The Washington Monument and the reflecting pond, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and Arlington Cemetery, all of which were quite awesome. Then we took a cab ride back to our hotel to get ready for the evening dinner and meeting at the J.W. Marriott with my fellow National Representatives. We had a great dinner and meeting which prepared us for the next day.

Day number two: Tuesday (the big day). We had breakfast and were brought next door to the National Press Club by our Cox representative, while our parents stayed back at the Marriott for a parent meeting. We were all met and presented at the summit by our representatives to John Walsh (America’s Most Wanted) and Lauren Nelson (Miss America 2007). With the press watching us and Cox cable’s Lobbyist, we began to discuss the Internet as it interacts with teens and younger children. John Walsh led the conference as he and Lauren Nelson asked us youth questions, and we related our experiences and thoughts in regards to the Internet and Internet Safety. It was quite a fulfilling one hour segment to which afterwards we were brought into the National Press Room where we met with our parents, Cox representatives, John Walsh, Lauren Nelson, Cox Capitol Hill Lobbyist, press from all over the country, and all of this was led by your Cox Enterprise representative; Necole Merritt. It was a great and exciting experience. Followed by a lovely lunch in the National Press Club’s cafeteria, where we prepared for our meeting on Capitol Hill.

Capitol Hill…Wow!!!!! I had a 3:30 p.m. appointment with House Speaker Harry Reid, and along with myself, my Cox representative Mrs. Stallworth, my mother, Cox Enterprises Lobbyist, and Photographer; we met with John Walsh and his assistant to meet with Senator Harry Reid. We were given approximately ten minutes to convey our message about the Internet Summit, take some pictures, and for me to deliver my package and relay my message to the Senator about “Tween” Internet safety. It was quite exciting especially when he finally acknowledged me and said, “My, what a lovely little girl voice you have.” I handed him the package and told him thank you Senator Reid for your time today. He left quickly, and our group dispersed, and we went on to our next Capitol Hill visit with Congressman Porter.

Our meeting with Congressman John Porter was amazing. He was kind, attentive, gracious, and extremely inquisitive of our Internet Safety Conference. He gave us about twenty minutes of his graciousness. He wanted to know all about the Internet and the problems it presents for us young tweens. By the way Mr.Schorr, Mrs. Stallworth did mention to him about your golf game in comparison to his……...and he reacted with a grin “I’m not quite sure of what they were taking about???” I spoke to Congressman John Porter, explained our summit meeting, as Mrs. Stallworth had prepared me to do, and gave him the presentation package. He promised to review it and do what he could with this issue.

After satisfactorily leaving Congressman Porter’s office, and America’s magnificent Capitol building we went back to our hotel and met my fellow representatives at the ESPN Zone restaurant. We had so much fun!

Day number three: Wednesday began at breakfast with my fellow representatives as we shared our experiences of the prior day. We discussed who had meetings on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and which meetings each of us had today. My meeting today was at 2:30 p.m. with Congresswoman Shelley Berkley. We took a cab over to the Capitol building, and again I was filled with an exciting feeling as we went into our “Wonderful” Nations Capitol Building. Congresswoman Berkley was in a Congressional meeting on the House floor when we arrived, she was expected to be late for our meeting, her assistant contacted her as per her anticipated timing and she concluded that she probably would not be speaking for twenty more minutes and if we went in the back door of the Lobby building escorted by her she would be able to meet with us for ten minutes in a private meeting room. Upon meeting with Congresswoman Berkley she was enthusiastic and responsive to the information I gave to her on the Tween Summit meeting. She was quite familiar with the prior two years meetings and received my package of information graciously, and promised to have her staff keep in touch with our progress.

We preceded back to our hotel quite satisfied and accomplished, and hopeful of like feelings from our peers and their meetings from today. We got ready for dinner and met with our fellow tween representatives and with the pressure of the prior days off of us we laughed and chatted and had a lot of fun. We had a happy and eventful dialogue where we all got a chance to express a happy moment, a successful moment, and/or a memorable moment. Most agreed the summit was the most successful moment, and most agreed that Capitol Hill was the most memorable, and all of us agreed to being happy and satisfied with being a chosen member of Cox Cable’s 2008 Tween Summit.

Some of us after dinner went on a tour of Georgetown only to get rained out, most of us said goodbye, because we were all leaving sometime the next day. Our goodbyes were bitter sweet; we had made such good friendships in such a short period of time. We promised to keep in touch via my blog that I had set up with Las Vegas Review Journal’s Al Gibes prior to my departure to Washington D.C. I took all of my peer representatives e-mails and promised to get back to them through my blog, to which as of today Sunday July 27, 2008 I have completed.

Day number four: Thursday we woke up hurriedly to pack up our room and check out of our hotel and prepare to get in as much touring before our flight left for Las Vegas at 10:00 p.m. We jumped in a cab, and headed for the Holocaust museum. This was quite a memorable and mentally exhausting experience. Sad, horrific, surreal, terrifying, inhumane, frightful, are just some of the words that come to mind when I think of a horrible human to human experience. All I can say is thank you God for America! We left there and had some lunch and proceeded on to the National Gallery of Art. We only had about an hour, but we ran through the museum and grabbed as much gusto and beauty as we could take before it closed. We left the National Gallery of Art and Mrs. Stallworth taught me how to operate the Metro system, we took it to Union Station and upon arriving I had a call on my cell phone from Mr. Al Gibes from the Review Journal in Las Vegas. We found a seat in the Union Station Café and I preceded my second interview with him. While I was interviewing with Mr. Gibes, Mrs. Stallworth’s daughter Savannah called the airlines to get status on our flight and she let us know that our flight had been moved up and we did not have much time to get back to out hotel, get our luggage, and get to the airport. I finished my half an hour conversation with Mr. Gibes to whom he also spoke with my mother and Mrs. Stallworth, and we ran for a cab to get us back to our hotel to retrieve our luggage and on to the airport.

We arrived safely at home in the early hours of Friday morning. I left for Washington a 14 year old Teenager, and came back to Las Vegas, my home, a 14 year old experienced in the Internet, educated in our Nation’s Capitol Hill process, and Washington D.C.’s historic phenomenon. And I feel I have become an open minded, appreciative, thankful, and determined teenager, with a desire to complete my undertaking as the 2008 Tween Representative for Cox’s Internet Tween Summit.

Thank you Mr. Schorr, Mrs. Stallworth, Ms. Necole Merritt, Cox Cable, and Cox Enterprises, and all that have been part of this extraordinary experience.


With Sincere Gratitude and Appreciation,
Krystina Kinney

P.S. Mr. Al Gibes from the Las Vegas Review Journal has kept in touch with me since I was accepted as a representative for the Tween Summit in Nevada. Mr. Gibes has had me set up a blog to which I have sent on to all of my fellow representatives, you can check out my blog at: http://krystinastweensummit.blogspot.com/.

P.S. Mrs. Stephanie Stallworth has been an amazing leader, teacher, and representative, and I thank her from the bottom of my heart.

P.S. Necole Merritt’s presentation of the Tween Summit was phenomenal and hopefully will continue as needed, for years to come.

P.S. Mr.Schorr you may not remember, I have met you through Mrs. Stallworth a few times in the past, most recently the dog show, at the Orleans Arena, but most importantly my respect, thankfulness, and gratitude are with you, for choosing me your 2008 Cox Cable Tween Summit representative from Nevada.