On May 12th, i had the honor of working with Nationwide while they were in town. We worked all day in Joseph Craig Elem during the last week of school. It recharged my batteries.  Yankees Hats Off to Tim Morton for the disign of the logo, fighting termites the night before to draw it out for the following day and showing up to lead Nationwide in the painting on the day of the event.

Dear Nationwide;

Participation… that’s what’s gonna save the human race

            I’ve worked with many groups from around the world. Sometimes it’s like catching cnidarians in a dip net… and sometimes it’s hard work. With Nationwide, it was both of these… and still it was a pleasure.

            We beautified the campus from the front to the back with gardenias, boxwoods, azaleas and cleyera japonica. We built and installed 10… wait… 9 benches around the playground and basketball court to allow the students a place to relax outside. We designed and painted a brand new fierce lion logo on the key of the court. This piece of the puzzle was outside in the heat and it turned out to be the easy part of the day.

            Inside the school we worked with the students of Craig Elementary and discovered that the logo we were painting outside was more appropriate than we could have ever imagined. Children have the hearts of Lions. While reading to them and tutoring them and eating lunch with them and simply spending time with them, we had a chance to see the true depths found in these hearts. I hope you took what you learned that day home to your families and to your schools and to your communities… because I sure did. And for that, I thank you.

            -As Americans, we are the owners of the public school system.

    -As owners, we bear a responsibility to participate in the system.

-Accountability for our public schools, their safety, and its employees and its funding rests with us and the rest of the system’s owners.

            -Our children’s future depends on the improvement of the public schools.

            -And this improvement depends on our participation.

                                                                                                -Woodrow Wilson-

Please come back and we will do it again.