One of our newest members, Jesse Pizana, agreed to give his member moment today. Here’s what he told us:He is 26 years old and has lived in Tecumseh all of his life. His Father owns Victory Builders and his Mother was formerly the manager of First Federal in Tecumseh and currently an accountant at Lenawee Fuels. She also worked many years at UBT. He has a sister who has five children ages 6-9 and three of them share the same birthday! Jesse had started working in property management in the Ann Arbor area just out of high school where he graduated in 2009 and then moved to Adrian because he “really missed it.” He is now at D & P Communications as a Business Solutions Consultant where he is extremely satisfied, he said, with both his boss and the company.
At 13, Jesse was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy for a few months at which time he was in remission. However, a month later it returned and this time, he said, much more aggressively. He went through more chemo as well as a bone marrow transplant and radiation. The entire time he was very involved in the Relay for Life that year with his Mother acting as chairs of the event in Tecumseh. Their goal was $25,000 but ended up raising $75,000!!
Jesse is a Christian, he said, and is the Youth Pastor at his church – Ridgeway Nazarene and credits God with “the great things He has done for me!” He said that’s why he wanted to join Rotary because of the family that stood by him during his illness and he can now give back to the community where he has developed “a lot of great friendships” and is so very grateful for everything that was done for him.
Once he started to improve, he said, his sister was a victim of a domestic violence situation with a person she had been seeing. Just like when he was sick, family and friends, he said, also came to her aid. Marcy and Tim Brown, he said, opened their home to him and his family when they found out that his sister’s boyfriend had broken into his parent’s house. Yet another show of support for them during tough times. These experiences, he concluded, have been heartwarming due to the compassion people show others in time of need so, for him, being a part of an organization is “heartwarming to me.”