Musings of a former President

WHAT’S IN A THANK YOU?  Thirty years ago on May 23 my oldest child was born.  At that time I set as a goal helping any kids we may have pay for college so they would not have any significant debt when they got to the real world.  This past weekend my youngest of three graduated from UNE’s Pharmacy School.  All three of my kids graduated from college with no or very little debt.  It had been a lot of hard work but it was worth it.

 

            On Sunday, May 21, my daughter Erin got to speak as the Valedictorian of her class.  I had helped her with her speech, but near the end she took a moment to thank her family and specifically talked briefly about both Holly and me, thanking us both.  To be completely honest I could not tell you exactly what she said because the pride was pushing its way out of the corners of my eyes as I listened to her speak, and I was doing my best to hold it together, but I knew that she had thanked me and had recognized all the hard work that made her education possible. Frankly, it was only a sentence or two, but it was all I needed.  Later as I reflected I truly felt appreciated and could never really ask for anything more.

 

            Why do I share this?  Next week on May 31 we all have a chance to go to the Center of Technology and thank a group of men and women who gave their time and money to make our first off site Rotary house happen.  There will be contractors and material suppliers there who, in this housing economy, certainly could have been somewhere else making money instead of giving their time, energy, expertise and materials to our project.  They deserve our thanks. This is one meeting that everyone should try to attend.

 

            Look, I realize about 4 of you read the Tack and of those 4 maybe 2 of you read my musings, but we should all make an effort to encourage every member of our club to make the meeting on May 31 at the Center of Technology.  Sure, it starts an hour early, but your work will wait while we take the opportunity to say thanks to some people who really helped us out.  I suspect those thank you’s will mean more to them than you know.  Let’s all try to be there on May 31.  Thanks.

 

            Have a great week.