Here are Gerry’s fine comments (word-for-word) at today’s meeting:“We don’t often get to thank each other for all of the difference you make. You’d be amazed at the number of times I hear individual names and many of whom are sitting here today from kids who I run into at Adrian High who say ‘Do you know so and so? They made a difference in my life.’ We often hear the difficult stories but you’d be amazed at the things that have happened with our Junior Rotarians and what they say about this group to their friends. There are great kids in Lenawee County and in Adrian Michigan. And you’re making a difference. And I can site each one of you and say ‘This is what I’ve heard. This is the difference you made’.
So, my program is, any chance you have to work with kids, and many times have to work with kids who have serious problems – there’s no doubt about that, but also there are a lot of kids are, for lack of a better term, BC kids who are going to be then salt of this earth, they’re going to make good citizens and anything you can do to help them along the way – be a mentor – doesn’t have to be time intensive, just be a mentor by just asking them ‘How you doing?’ you’d be amazed at the feedback that I hear out of the Rotary Club of Adrian. It’s simply amazing. The scholarships that we give have gotten tremendous feedback as a way of promoting the 4-Way Test.
Monday I was sitting with four of the Junior Rotarians and an item came up and I hear out of two of them ‘Is it the Truth, Is it Fair……..’ But you wouldn’t necessarily know that. So, as a retired educator, thank you for everything this club does and anything as small as you might think it is, has a tremendous ripple effect . So, that’s my point! Thank you!”