Speaking to the Future
Weekly update #328 5/3/2026 to 5/9/2026
I have said it before, and I am sure I will say it again, speaking to our future is one of my favorite parts of my job. Before that though, let me share some other parts of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
Congratulations to all the Daisy and Bee award winners this week at Schneck Medical Center. The Daisy Foundation honors nurses each year in honor of J. Patrick Barnes. We all know nurses who go above and beyond to provide patients with clinical care and compassion. The Daisy Award is a chance for patients and family members to nominate an outstanding caring professional. Each year, I am always in awe of the nomination letters as they are read. The Bee Award is a chance to recognize non-nursing staff for outstanding service as well. This past week, Schneck held their annual award program and asked if I would proclaim May 6-12 Nurses’ Week here in Seymour. Congratulations again; I look forward to hearing stories about 2026 next year.
Congratulations to Jackson County Drug Court as they celebrate 10 years. If you are not familiar with what a drug court does, it takes non-violent offenders with substance use disorder and sentences them to treatment instead of jail. It takes a team made up of a judge, prosecutors, defense attorneys, treatment providers, and law enforcement to make the program work, and Jackson County has made it work since 2016. Thank you to everyone who has been involved over the last decade. I am sure you have changed several lives during your time helping with this program.
Congratulations to all the band kids who performed recently at Seymour High School. The spring concert brings everyone from eighth graders to seniors together for one night. To all the seniors, thank you for years of music, and best wishes on whatever you plan to do after high school. If you plan to hang up that instrument after graduation here in a few weeks, you are almost there. If you plan to keep playing into college and beyond, keep it up; maybe we will get to catch a performance at a game or parade in the future.
When I say speaking to the future is one of the favorite parts of my job, I mean speaking to the young people who will grow up and lead our community in the years to come. That can be to elementary kids, like this week when I went to share about my job with second graders at Emerson Elementary as they study elections and vote in a class president as the unit wraps up. For this age group, I have found that relating my role in our community to the role of the school principal seems to help them understand. Last week, I also had the chance to speak to the eighth graders who graduated YoJack. YoJack is a youth leadership program offered by Leadership Jackson County, where our county's eighth graders learn leadership skills to better prepare them for the future. The program is really preparing them for all our futures as they grow into tomorrow’s leaders. It never fails that someone will ask what my favorite part of my job is, and I always tell them, “speaking to them because they are our community's future.” To our teachers and volunteers, like the leaders of YoJack, who work with our young people, thank you! With all this talk of the future I will leave you with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."