Learn and Grow
Weekly Update #246 10/6/2024 to 10/12/2024
I woke up the other morning thinking about the amount of misinformation or disinformation out there. Of course, I hate writing a weekly update from a negative perspective so we will move on from that thought, and I will share some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America while I find a new closer.
I had a chance this week to speak to a couple of area preschools about community helpers. While there, we talked about some they had already met and some that were scheduled later in the week. It was a chance to help them understand how many different people help our community and to help them understand not to be afraid of various helpers if they are ever in a crisis. A firefighter in turnout gear could be a bit scary to a preschooler trapped in a house fire. Thank you, April, for the invite to speak this week and share a little bit about how mayors are community helpers.
Jumping from preschool to high school, it was Manufacturing Day here in Seymour as schools from all over the county had a chance to learn from Aisin, Cummins, Lannett, Pet Supplies Plus, and Valeo. As I welcomed the students to Seymour I shared with them that each of the companies have many options from working on the production floor to human resources, from marketing to accounting, and so many more options they may not have considered yet as they look to the future. Hopefully, the day helps them explore new options offered right here in Seymour and Jackson County. Thank you to Jackson County Industrial Development Corporation for all the work putting the event together, and thank you to all the sponsors listed earlier in this paragraph who also helped put on presentations and tours.
This week, I spent a few days at the Accelerate Indiana Municipalities Ideas Summit held this year in Fort Wayne. Each day, attendees have a chance to learn something new, and each session has several options of topics to lead to great hallway conversations with other elected officials from around Indiana. It would be easy to attend a session connected to each department in the city and still not catch it all. I have said it in previous years, and will say it again, that the best part of the event is the hallway conversations where we get a chance to dive deeper into the topics just presented. It is our chance to learn from other communities and put our heads together on topics that we face not just in our communities, but across the state and beyond. Thank you to AIM for another chance to improve myself for my community.
On the way home from the Ideas Summit, I made a stop at the groundbreaking for the Fire Chief Alan W. Burns Advanced “Hub” Fire Training Facility in Plainfield. During the event, it was announced that Seymour would be one of four additional training facilities to be added to help make fire fighting in Indiana safer for everyone from career firefighters to their volunteer counterparts across the state. The additional facilities will place almost all Indiana firefighters within 30 miles of such a place to improve their skills for the future. It was said during the event that Chief Burns was dedicated to advance fire fighting techniques and wanted all of his team to be the best they possibly could be even if they made it to retirement without needing to use what they had learned. Thank you to everyone involved for helping Seymour Fire Department and beyond become better prepared in the event that they need it.
I will leave you with this thought today that I hope you have already picked up on. From preschool to high school and into our adult lives, we need to continue to learn and explore how to improve ourselves. It can be from reading, educational workshops, or even hands-on training that we grow and develop. Study everything you can get your hands on and find as many sources as possible to make sure you are as knowledgeable as can be. How about a quote from molecular biologist Cynthia Kenyon to finish, "I have always gotten a thrill, a kick, from learning new things."