At the time of this writing, I am preparing for a role in the 20th Annual Saints & Sinners fundraiser. It started simply enough: “Tom, would you research this individual?” and expanded to: “Tom, would you write the script for him?” Eventually, it became: “Tom, would you portray the subject?”
I’m of an age that I can remember the phrase:
JUST SAY NO!
How does one do that? Our organization can use all the help we can get, so I say YES when I can. I’m surrounded by “yes-people”, which makes it easier for me to say yes, but many of us are “up there” in age. That necessarily limits some of the physical projects we can tackle, but we have lots of sit-down activities: scanning, research, report-writing, etc. I am heartened by the influx of young people, too: in our staff members, in our Board of Trustees, and in our ranks of volunteers. We have the common goal of saving our history so we can share it with future generations.
In my time on the Board of Trustees, I have witnessed many improvements in our financial footing, increased cooperation with other historical societies, cleaning and maintaining our facilities, improving the cataloging of our existing collections, assisting with research for the public. I’m sure I’ve missed mentioning other improvements, but you get the point.
So, I’m about to play a dead guy for pretend. Before I play one for real, I will keep helping the Fenton when and where I can. Maybe you’ll join us?
