Plenty to do
Weekly Update 11/6 to 11/12 #146
There is still plenty to do. Before I explore this thought more though, let me share some of my recent week as mayor of the best smalltown in America.
As of 14:05 Thursday, November 10, 2022, Seymour Fire Department is operating out of the new Headquarters Station located on West 2nd Street. On November 9th, exactly one year after breaking ground, we were able to cut the hose on the new facility. This $5.75 million project was not without the issues all construction projects have had over the last 12 months, but we were able to keep it on time and on budget thanks to the help of our many partners and under the watchful eye of Chief Lucas. I cannot say thank you to him enough for all the work and sleepless nights he dedicated to this project since the start of the conversations that dated back to before my time as mayor.
The Greater Seymour Trust Fund held its annual board meeting recently to cover various topics and prepare for the next scholarship and grant cycles. In all, the GSTF oversees 54 funds that provide scholarships to area students for educational purposes and grants for area nonprofits to utilize each year. They have given over $9 million since being established and are always working on more. Thank you to everyone who has established a fund or who is involved in the oversight of the funds; your work benefits many in our community.
World Diabetes Day is coming up on Monday, November 14th. Seymour Noon Lions held its first Stride Walk to help raise awareness. America has the most adults worldwide with 31 million cases of diabetes. Almost 180,000 kids in America have type 1 diabetes. Statistics like these are why Lions Clubs are starting to offer free diabetes screenings for events in their area. Many members of the Seymour Noon Lions have now been trained in testing and when to recommend someone seeks more information from their doctor. Thank you, Lions, for seeing a need and working to fill it.
Well, with that last line, I guess it is time to get back to that thought of “there is still plenty to do” from the opening paragraph. It is easy to identify the problems around us. Sometimes they are simple like the house is cold. It is time to turn the furnace on. Other times they are not as clear, and we retreat to the simple solution of complaining about the problem and expecting someone else to be the solution. Each and every one of us is busy at a level that we accept. When we see a problem, such as the examples above, and decide that it is big enough that we want to tackle it, we get much closer to a solution. Sometimes it takes a team of problem solvers to get to the solution, and we can get there much quicker. The Lions,for example, use their over 11,000 clubs in America to raise diabetes awareness. The donors to the Greater Seymour Trust Fund coming together to create the fund were looking how to do the most good. The much smaller team that worked through the issues during the construction of the new building for Seymour Fire Department are all examples of coming together and achieving goals. Seymour, like all communities, has many problems, and I would guess you can already name a few as you read. We are also blessed with many groups of people working to solve most of those problems already. Today, I challenge each and every one of us to take some time and identify the problems that are closest to our hearts and then identify who is currently working on a solution to that problem. The last step in this challenge is to reach out to the groups you have identified and see how you can get involved. Do they need volunteers? Do they need funding? What do they need the most? There is still plenty to do, and each time we step forward and say I can help, we build a better community for tomorrow. I believe Maya Angelou said it best when she said, "When you do nothing you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better."