Meeting

Report

 
HOW I GOT WHERE I'M AT
by Bob Barber
 
Pam Daigle, Executive Director of the Charlotte Chapter of the American Red Cross, was born in Chicago and arrived in Charlotte following a number of other assignments with the ARC. She structured her presentation around a theme of “lessons I’ve learned.” As a young girl, her father always told her she could do anything she wanted to do. From that she learned that fathers are very important to young girls. She majored in art at Northern Illinois University, but found that as a “left brain thinker,” she was not much of an artist. From this she learned that when something is really hard for you, it might be a great and worthy challenge, but it more likely is really someone else’s work. While in her assignment with the Red Cross in Bangor, Maine, she learned that if you can find work that spotlights your strengths and keeps your weaknesses hidden, you’ve got it made. She also learned that any organization needs many hands and when bad things happen, as they often do, it is a blessing to be in a position to give help. On managing people, she learned that people are all different and that diversity is good, but it is also possible for two people of good will to have totally different perspectives of an event.

Edwin Peacock, III, is a financial advisor with Pomfret Financial Co. Edwin structured his presentation as a movie of his life, introducing the episodes and characters that made up the movie of his life. He also brought three props: a heart-shaped box of candy, representing parts of the movie involving love, an old baseball on a display stand, and a picture post card of Charlotte. Edwin grew up in Charlotte, the son of two loving and committed parents. He graduated from the University of Georgia, where he met Amy, who he followed to Washington, D.C. and convinced her to marry him. They have two children who he loves dearly and he loves being a parent. The baseball represented a passion of his life that also taught him some great lessons. He grew up wanting to play for the Boston Red Sox and he worked hard at that dream. He played for us a scene in which he was at bat as the pitcher for the “mighty” Sardis Astros in their game against the Providence Cardinals. He took the next pitch and hit his first grand slam home run. Although he didn’t make it to the Red Sox, he learned several lessons from baseball that can be useful in life: first, you can’t hit a pitch that you don’t swing at, second, anything can and will happen on the mound, so be prepared, and third, you’re only as good as your last game. The post card represented the fact that when he left Charlotte for Washington, D.C., he didn’t know whether he would ever return, but he soon realized that in Washington, D.C., he seldom saw anyone he knew on the street or at the store. He also noticed that Charlotte kept drawing him back and when he came for visits he always ran into someone he knew. In the latest scene from his movie, he has finally moved back to Charlotte where he often runs into friends that he realizes represent the roots of his life. As the last scene in this latest reel of the movie of Edwin’s life fades to the skyline of Charlotte, we see Edwin Peacock, III, as a proud member of the Charlotte community.

Major Ward and Captain Michele Matthews. Co-Executive Directors of the Salvation Army of Mecklenburg and Union Counties, treated the club to a “tag team” presentation of “how they got to where they’re at.” Ward started with some history of the founding of the Salvation Army in London in around 1870. At that time, the Booths, the founders of the Salvation Army, observed a carriage horse go down on the streets of London. They watched as a crowd of people worked to get the horse upright and walked to a stable where the horse would be fed, and watered, and cared for until it was strong enough to return to the streets as a productive carriage horse. From this observation, the Booths reasoned that a man that was down in the street should be worth at least as much care as a horse. This led to the founding of the Salvation Army with the mission to provide physical care and spiritual care to men in need of rescue. Not long afterward, the new Salvation Army rescued Ward’s grandfather. Out of gratitude, a family member joined the Salvation Army and since that time, there has always been a member of the Matthews family in the uniform of a Salvation Army Officer. Ward was born in Alabama (“Roll Tide,” he says) and graduated from Emory University in Atlanta. He entered the Salvation Army Officers School and graduated as a Salvation Army Officer. After several postings he was posted to Tampa, Florida, where he says a “hot nurse” entered his life. Michele’s parents were Salvation Army officers but she had no plans to follow them into the Army. Moving around with her parents, she graduated from high school in Louisville, Kentucky. She graduated from Asbury College and while applying for graduate school she took a job that turned her on to nursing. She moved to Northern Virginia to live with her parents while she attended nursing school at Johns Hopkins University. She graduated with a BSN and moved to Tampa for a job as a critical care nurse. After marrying some guy from Alabama, she attended the two year Salvation Army Officers School and following graduation, she and Ward (the guy from Alabama) were posted to Greensboro, NC. From there they were posted to Charlotte.
 
Head Table:
Ward Matthews, Pam Daigle, Catherine Browning, Ralston Pound, David Norman, Edwin Peacock, Michele Matthews
    
Visitors and Guests:
Invocation: Fred Lowrance; Visitors & Guests: Jeff Triplette; Health & Happiness: John Snyder; Song: Thomas Moore

*    *    *

MARK THE DATE FEBRUARY 23, 2005 GALA – CHARLOTTE COUNTRY CLUB: Everyone should have received an invitation to the February 23rd Gala at Charlotte Country Club. The dinner replaces the Tuesday Rotary meeting. Please RSVP to Sandy through email (chltrot@bellsouth.net), telephone 704-375-6816, or US Mail 841 Baxter St, Ste 118 (28202). The cost is $50/Couple and checks should be received in the Rotary office BEFORE February 16th.

Click here for photos of this Meeting