By Gus Hawkins, District Coordinator for Indiana
Never underestimate your ability to connect with another human being.
My wife, Past Indiana Governor Pat Hawkins, and I like to vacation in southwest Florida. While we don’t get down there often enough, we like to attend the Marco Island Kiwanis Club meetings whenever we can.
I was the club’s guest speaker in November, and I gave a presentation on The Eliminate Project. There was a lot of interest with lots of great questions, and many of the members dedicated their “Happy Dollars” that day to The Eliminate Project.
Member and Fire Chief of Marco Island, Mike Murphy, described witnessing the death of a man who was infected with tetanus. Member Kathleen Reynolds told us about witnessing tetanus in Peru. Very powerful!
Afterwards, a man by the name of Edward Fullmer greeted me. He told me that he is a frequent guest of the club, but not a member. He continued saying that he found The Eliminate Project to be very meaningful and touching. Then, an amazing thing happened: he handed me a very generous donation for The Eliminate Project! He also gave an identical check to the club! The club’s treasurer said they would probably donate it to The Eliminate Project as well.
What a wonderful opportunity to talk about the project. One gentlemen asked why the project hadn’t been discussed much over the past year. I took the opportunity to explain the project’s organization and strategy from now until 2015.
The Kiwanis club meeting was a great example of how our continual efforts for outreach can make a difference.
We should never miss an opportunity to talk about The Eliminate Project and to reach out to every group and individual that we can. You never know when a “Mr. Fullmer” might be the one who is listening.