Well, if you read my previous Monday Mission Update, you know how 14,000 of my closest friends and I spent Thanksgiving morning. This year, my crew and I went to the Y Turkey Trot at the Weinberg Y in Waverly, one of the six locations around the region where runners, walkers, people pushing strollers, and those wearing turkey costumes came together to support the Y, get some exercise, and find a wonderful slice of community on a holiday morning.
Y member and Governor-elect Wes Moore participated in the Weinberg Y race, and he was his usual ebullient and energetic self, speaking before the race (follow this link to hear his remarks), chatting up his fellow runners during the race, and then sticking around for endless high fives and selfies afterward. Wes’ enthusiasm was contagious but by no means unique across our six locations. This is definitely a very happy event, as you can see from some of the thousands of pictures that were taken:
It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is now behind us and that we’re barreling toward year-end. With so much on our collective plate, I have to admit to feeling energized and optimistic about the near-term, despite all of the ups and downs of the past several years. As a country, as a community, and as a Y, we’ve all been through a lot and have a bunch of rational reasons to wonder about what the future holds. And that’s understandable. However, I believe in what the great Irish writer George Bernard Shaw wrote: “Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.”
As we head into the holidays and next year, the joy I saw on people’s faces at the Y Turkey Trot reminds me that we always have a choice about what kind of world we live in and how we spend our time while we’re in it.
See you at the Y!
All the best,
John K. Hoey
President & CEO
The Y in Central Maryland