THE PEOPLE HE NEVER MET: AARON BOYD’S LESSON IN COMMUNITY

In 2025, Aaron attended the “Musical Midway” Charity All-Nighter expecting little more than a good night out with friends. Instead, the experience stayed with him long after the event ended. In the weeks after the all-nighter, Aaron talked to fellow youth team member Izabela, who encouraged him to get involved. After experiencing the energy in the room, Aaron, and his sister Madison, joined the WMCD Youth Team as his senior year began.

“I really liked its ideas and the message WMCD stands for,” Aaron said. “So, I decided to join.”

Over the next year, Aaron became part of the team behind the very event that had first inspired him. So, when the 2026 all-nighter arrived, he was no longer just a participant. At this point, he had become an important voice behind the scenes, working to make the all-nighter come to life. That shift changed the way he viewed both service and community.

Before WMCD, Aaron said he had always thought about helping others in a more personal sense. “Helping others” meant helping friends, family members, or people already in his life. But through his experience on the youth team, he began to realize that compassion did not need to depend on familiarity.

“Before I was on WMCD, I didn’t think of ‘others’ as a lens bigger than the people I knew,” he reflected. “WMCD helped me understand that ‘others’ can be anyone.”

That realization became especially meaningful during the 2026 closing ceremony, when the idea that “you don’t need to know someone to want to help them” became one of the night’s central themes. For Aaron, it perfectly captured everything he had learned during his year on the youth team.

“I know I’ve been very lucky with my life,” he explained. “Anything I can do for them or anyone in a similar situation is something that doesn’t feel like an obligation as much as an opportunity to brighten the world just a little bit more.”

Throughout the all-nighter, Aaron found meaning in both the large moments and the small ones. In particular, the new “charity games” stood out to him, as they made the impact of the event feel very tangible and immediate.

“It really made me feel the difference we were making just by being there at the event,” he said.

But some of his favorite memories came much later in the night, after the adrenaline had faded and exhaustion had begun to settle in. After a long night of trying to stay awake, Aaron found himself playing Jenga with Izabela and another volunteer, laughing through the fatigue that everyone was starting to feel. “That moment really embodied what the night truly felt like,” he reflected, “and how it can feel to help people.”

For Aaron, this experience was never just about raising the most amount of money or being in the spotlight – it was about choosing to spend his time caring about strangers he’ll never meet.

By the end of the event, Aaron was physically exhausted but emotionally energized in a completely different way. “Having this be both my first and last time, I wanted to make it incredibly special,” he shared during the closing ceremony. “This amazing group of people absolutely made it that for me.”

He joked about how tired everyone felt after making it through the night, but underneath the humor was a genuine sense of pride. “Knowing that we helped thousands of people, it feels amazing,” he said. “You don’t need to know someone to make a difference, to want to help them.”

This fall, Aaron will attend Vassar College to study applied mathematics and statistics. But one of the most important lessons he will carry with him from WMCD has little to do with numbers. 

It is the understanding that community is far bigger than the people already in your life, and that sometimes the most meaningful acts of kindness are the ones offered to complete strangers.