Kate Garnes visits CHS on Nov. 15 to speak about finding self worth and having standards. She invites students to dance with her at the beginning and discusses themes of abandonment, rising above the feeling, and becoming a GLADIATOR for herself. She empowers the students by telling them stories of how she struggled as a child, teenager, and adult and tells them that “if you go searching for joy, you will find it. If you go searching for evil, you will find it.” She also tells students that, “no one will come to save you, so when you are backed against the corner with nowhere to turn, unleash your battle cry!”

Kate Garnes describes herself on her website as a, “speaker, choreographer, kickboxing trainer, youtuber, and all around normal girl trying to leave this world a tiny bit brighter than when I came into it.” She states that she was “Originally from the great state of Missouri,” and that she “was an only child raised by a strong single mom, on unsweet tea, playing outside, and old school Nickelodeon cartoons. Growing up small compared to others her age, Kate always felt the need to try to chase that pesky little thing called perfection, which was a losing fight. In working with youth for over ten years, Kate can see the same chase for perfection in teens that she saw in herself. She uses her story of being told she was never good enough to become a performer at Walt Disney World to becoming an author and gladiator, not because anyone saved her, but because she learned how to save herself.”

Students had mixed feelings about her presentation, but she certainly left quite a good impression of CHS and the community as a whole. ComWell in Red Bud and some other sponsors helped this event become a relatively successful one.