Blessings or Burdens
Weekly Update 2/4/2023 to 2/11/2023 #159
This week I will start out by reminding you that the choice is up to you. Before I write down what choice is on my mind though, let me share some of my week serving as the mayor of the best smalltown in America.
This week saw a few meetings related to the Brookings Study that we are working on with the Brookings Institute, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and the cities of Warsaw and Michigan City, Indiana. As we launch the advisory team on Valentine's day, the core team has been working since third quarter of last year. When the process is complete later this year, we should have a handbook for the next three years that will guide us on how to integrate all of our area residents into the economic future of our community. The handbook will be created from the boots on the ground as we gather residents from across the board to share what our community looks like from their view. Stay tuned over the next several months for the results of this exciting work.
With the State of the City address coming up on February 27th, I spent some time this week talking with department heads and reading annual reports. As I review my notes from last year, I will decide which pieces will be presented in a few weeks as a look back at 2022 and a look forward toward 2023 and beyond. It is always fun to see what pieces of information make the final draft to be presented. Stay tuned for more on this topic in a few weeks.
The Tim Tebow Foundation hosts the Night to Shine each year. This year it was back in person at Seymour Christian Church with organization help from The ARC of Jackson County and 150-plus volunteers. Seeing the smiles on all the faces at this special needs prom makes it all worth it. From serving dinner to dancing with old and new friends, I hope everyone had as much fun as Zabrina and I did. If this interests you, I encourage you to follow The ARC of Jackson County on social media to keep an eye out on how you can help not just with this event, but others throughout the year. Thank you to everyone that organized, sponsored, and helped make all the kings and queens feel the love, and I look forward to working with you in 2024.
Well, I guess it is time to get back to talking about the choice. The choice I am talking about is the choice to count your blessings. This week, someone shared that they didn’t believe “I was the villain some are trying to make me out to be,” and for most of the week, I thought I would focus the column on this topic. After the Night to Shine event, I was looking for quotes for Saturday’s quote of the day and found this one from Tim Tebow, “Talk about your blessings more than you talk about your burdens.” So that is what I decided to do. This week, I had a chance to work on future planning with great organizations from around the country with a proven track record of success. I had a chance to share the joy with my special needs family during a Night to Shine. I had a chance to tackle the burden of jumping into a cold lake with my Special Olympics family, but because of this quote, it was overshadowed by the blessing of the many donors who helped me raise over $2600 to keep all the programs free to those who participate. Twice this week, as I sat down with out-of-town developers, I heard from them how amazing our downtown already is, how they visit other communities, not just of our size but much bigger, that have more vacant buildings in worse shape than we do. One asked if we were around 40,000 population and was surprised to hear we are only around 21,500. They shared that their guess was based on all the restaurants he passed coming into town for our meeting. He would not have expected so many choices for a town our size. Living here every day I think we often forget the blessings we have and focus on our burdens. I hope you can take a second today and every day to “Talk about your blessings more than you talk about your burdens.”