Special Topic - Community Service

Driving home tonight after midnight (with Blair Garner), I was doing alot of reflective thinking. It's the end of another county fair and this is the second year of fairs where we've started putting money back into the kids. Investing in the future of youth, just as our predecessors did and do today, my wife and I strive our hardest to give back to the community. We were both blessed by some great leaders who paid forward for our development and I'd like to think we turned out pretty well. That said, my wife embodies service and dedication to others above self and I just wanted to take a few minutes to tell you all how wonderful she is and how lucky I am to be married to her.

We met through 4-H, a community involvement and service organization. This wasn't by chance; both of us were dedicated to the program by the time that we met and both of us were engaged in our community beyond 4-H as well. She put in time with her school, helping to pass levies, served through her church and various other groups, as well as teaching others and helping younger kids grow and learn. This dedication to others carried through into college where it might be said that she even spent more time worrying about helping others than she did focusing on herself - a fine balance that every service leader must learn.

Now in our married years, we donate a good chunk of our small income towards churches, cancer research organizations, families in need, 4-H organizations and fair awards for kids. Now, you might say that donations of money is nothing compared to the nitty gritty of service in the field. And I agree with you to a point. It's easy to write a check when you have the money in the bank. But, when you have to plan out your groceries and reduce your utility bills so that you can save precious money, just to send it back out again to a deserving kid or cancer research patient, all the while working every waking hour just to break even at home - that takes service by donation to a whole new level. And it's not just donations and her dedication to financial support of organizations that makes her a hero in my book.

There's never a challenge that my wife will walk away from. As a volunteer, I get fed up with the attitude I get from parents or other volunteers. Many people forget about the kids we work to serve and get caught up in their own egos, but she just keeps on working. Sure, she gets as frustrated as the next person, but she knows the ultimate goal and sustains her dedication by knowing that it's all about the kids and encouraging/educating future generations. She puts in the long hours when necessary to make sure a job is done right and always asks how she can help others. Obviously, I'm a little biased, coming from someone so in love with such a wonderful, selfless person, but the world needs more like her.