Day: September 1, 2025

With very little fanfare, the once in a lifetime opportunity of using $250,000.00 solely for the benefit of others, has run 🏃‍♂️ its course. This takes us to the period of reflection…

Trying to some up five years of thought and efforts into a few paragraphs would be difficult for anyone, but for someone who likes to tell a story, its down right impossible.

Five years ago, we moved off our Resort Island 🏝 in the San Juan Islands with one of two destinations to choose from. We were either going to move to St.George, Utah and buy a $550,000.00 house or Plan B, move somewhere where we had no connection to anyone, buy a much smaller house and use $250K to fund our plan to raise the bar on Public Education.

We went with Plan B and on September 13th at Cavalier Park, we will dig through the sofa 🛋 for the remainder of the loose change and do one last nice thing for the Softball team.

In between now and the 13th, I get to account for every nickel that was spent in the fiscal year that just ended. Boy, that is not my idea of a good time.

What does spending a Quarter of a Million Dollars 💵 look like, or feel like?

I had a plan, one that was full of proven intities, that was designed to make Carroll County High School 🏫 the envy of the Commonwealth. Bonus being I had the money 💰 to fund it. The definition of putting your money where you mouth is.

Did we get there ? Not sure we even got in the same Time Zone of it, but the motto that I live by is Finish what you Start so we fought the Good Fight until the cash drawer was empty. The only tough Nugget was that I don’t feel that I ever had a serious conversation about our Vision at any point along the journey.

  Trying to ballpark the $$$ ahead of explaining it to the Government, I add that none of the money went towards salary, office 🏢 or even Gas ⛽ money. It doesn’t reflect upon the endless hours spent on a daily basis.

$25K – went in the direction of building the Pavillion at Page County High School.

$20K – went to the four Annual Banquets we held

$14K – was used to purchase the scoreboard for Cavalier Park.

$14K – and 18 months went into the creation and publishing process involved with the Carroll County Girls Basketball 🏀 Book

$13K went towards the Stadium seating at Cavalier Park.

$12K – to purchase a used pickup truck for my Son to use for our portion of Good Deeds in Page County.

$10K – went to Carroll County High School and the Cavalier Kudos program.

$10K+ – went into the direction of Soccer ⚽️ and that number happened very quietly, to me anyway. Between the soccer ⚽️ gates, Youth teams and two years worth of Shirts. Five different youth teams for 1 season each.

$15K – went towards the cost of setting up the Non-profit to begin with and the filing fees each year.

Three helping hands on Mission Trips, helping a local Church ⛪ replace their Sign and helping fund a Food Bank up in Rileyville explain the $10K+ that was Faith based.

  Getting to assist Casey Burcham and Shawn Montgomery in making Carroll County High School better for their Athletes are two Memories that I will treasure.

Softball, Volleyball, Cross Country, Special Olympics Basketball ➕ writing ✍ a check each of the past two seasons to West Long and his Wrestling Program all fit into the next category. Tennis teams under the guidance of Greg Talley and Martin McKenzie also on the list. Easy to see how quickly this portion added up.

$5K went into the direction of Motor Sports in regards to Dakota Walls ( 2 years) and Trenton Newman (1 year).

Another $5K went in the direction of the Computer 🖥 end of things. But on this one I have the four websites to show for it.

Sponsorship through The Carroll News on a number of occasions, when it benefited both the Newspaper 📰 and the Students added to the count. This included a Cheerleader and a Baseball player as examples.

Three seasons of sponsorship for the Strasburg Express add $6K to the total.

While I felt Blessed to be in a place to accept 🙏 less of a Home 🏡 in order to do something like this, I feel equally Blessed 🙌 that I survived it. Trying hard to figure out how to make sure that you are doing the right thing is a job for a much smarter person than myself.

  The Good News is that I can still write ✍ in a manner that creates smiles and I can still use my Voice for the Greater Good.

Naturally I didn’t list everyone of the Causes we invested in over the past five years, just listed enough to make sure we did the best we could to reach into as many corners as we could.

If something that we did touched your life in any manner, Please play ▶️ it forward. If you assisted us in any manner, God Bless you for it !

Diamonds 💎 are a Girls Best Friend : 50 Shades 😎 of Baseball – A life lesson presented by the Father of the Waynesboro Generals closer during their 2007 Championship run.

Photo Credit : John Leonard ( All Things Valley League)

   During the 2007 Valley Baseball League season, my efforts to promote the VBL through our website was in full swing. Lawrence Nesselrodt and his Waynesboro Generals would eventually end the season with the Championship but the night that opened my eyes 👀 took place just before then.

Waynesboro was hosting the Haymarket Senators at Kate Collins Field and per the norm, I was at the park hoping to strike up a conversation about the game of Baseball. Ness had a tough as nails 💅 closer by the name of Jimmy Stanley that season and as luck would have it, I ended up sitting and talking with his Father that night.

  Waynesboro was having its way with Haymarket that night and about halfway through the game, I started cheering for the visiting team, leading Mr Stanley to question my motivation for suddenly switching sides.

Realizing that Dad had driven in from Kentucky to see his Son pitch and knowing that Ness would not use his closer if he had an eight run lead was the reason why I wanted Haymarket to make a game of it.

  Mr Stanley smiled and proceeded to share a thought with me that has stuck like glue for nearly two decades now.

” Jerry, its okay if I don’t get to see my Son pitch tonight, I have been watching him play baseball for most of his life. Tomorrow the team has an off day and they are hosting a Family picnic for all of the players and coaches ➕ anyone related to them that can make it. Now, if you told me that I would miss out on spending the day with my Son and his friends, that would be a disappointment.”

  Remember what the Big Picture looks like in life and it can help bring clarity to your outlook. Your children are the easiest thing to be proud of in life, make sure that you take the time to enjoy the journey.

In a lifetime of criss crossing North America, finding every ballpark that I could find in search for a story, that two hours with Mr Stanley still makes me smile. Take the time to enjoy your Family, not just when they are playing a ball game.

Now, in 2009 the Generals would become my team but I refused to call myself the Owner, instead I went with Caretaker. The search for a new local owner would prove to be vital to the success of the organization.

  Looking back, even today, that conversation was as memorable of a moment as I have from Waynesboro.

Welcome to September, Welcome 🙏 to a new week and Welcome to Labor Day !! Get out there and have yourself some Fun…

The School 🏫 calender remains blank once again as we Celebrate the Holiday but we can look ahead to Tuesday night when all three Volleyball 🏐 teams will return to action 🎬. The Middle School will play at home while the Bigger Ladies head down to Marion for thir second match of the season.

The flipping of the calendar also means we are inching closer to Saturday September 13th and our gathering at Cavalier Park.

Head Coach Howard Mayo checks ✔ in with his Motovational Nugget for the Day as well !

The Streak hits another Half a Hundy mark!