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Speech for
Humanitarian Award – (2 – 3 minutes) Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, Mayor (dignitaries) ________, and fellow members of the Guiding Light Foundation… thank you! (Sense for
applause, wait until it dies down so that you may speak and be heard. Make magnanimous, but subtle gestures by nodding your head
and waving your hand in appreciation. Smile. Sense for
applause throughout the delivery.) To receive the _______ Award is one of the highest, and yet most humbling, honors of my life. When I began the journey… accepted the challenge… I had hoped at best that my efforts would make a difference in the lives of others. I did not take on the task of helping others so that I could feel a greater worth of self-esteem and self-serving glory. No. I stepped up – as I hope others will do who are here tonight – because there is a crying need for yours… our… services in the fields of building community… initiating change… establishing respect, integrity, creativity and laying the foundation for hope. By your awarding me the __________ Award, you have so declared that I have accomplished some of the tasks that lay before the Guiding Light Foundation. I thank you again for the recognition, but at this moment I wish to shine the spotlight back on you who are here tonight. Our job is far from completed. Our goals, seemingly once met, have taken on a life of their own and expanded. ‘Needs’, thought to have been fulfilled, now have grown in number. There is no diminishing need for justice. There is no diminishing need for community. There is a need for continued encouragement… a need for continued adaptability to situations and demands. There is a need…. (Pause and reflect.) I am asking for your help. The Guiding Light Foundation’s noble reputation cannot shoulder the task alone. I certainly cannot single-handedly carry the load. I…We… need your help! We need your volunteered time, leadership and energy. And, yes, we need your money. Endowments have to be funded as well as scholarships as well as administrative costs to the organization. We need anything you can give in order to achieve the Guiding Light’s goals. My dear friends and associates, life has become more
difficult. In a world where war is continually spoken of, where poverty,
starvation and disease are rampant, hope at times begins to flicker. Even here
in the Here, in the most powerful nation in the history of the world, we have an economy that is declining, cost of goods and taxes ever increasing, a central government that is forever expanding and becoming more and more cumbersome and politicians who seldom listen to the needs of their constituents. Here in the wealthiest nation on earth, we have over 40,000,000 people who are not covered with any kind of health care protection. This in and of itself – in my opinion – is our ‘national shame’. (Pause.) And… while some crimes have declined in the United States, other forms of crime have escalated… crimes usually associated with the adverse effects of a poor economy, a lack of good-paying jobs, cut-backs in city police force budgets and just outright desperation on the parts of many of our underprivileged citizens. On the surface, it would seem that life’s enthusiasm and opportunity have disappeared for many of our people, and for some, those two elements of redemptive life were never there to begin with. For more people than I care to think about, desperation and surrender rule their everyday lives and in so doing drive these countless souls into dead-end alleys of terminal depression. (Pause and gather yourself. Let
what was just spoken sink in.) Well, my dear friends, I am here tonight, testifying to one
and all that lack of opportunity, along with depression, economic destitution,
illness and crime do not have to be given the right of way into people’s lives.
No! That does not have to be the way, and if the Guiding Light Foundation has
anything to do with it, Hope, Compassion, Direction, Encouragement, Respect,
Creativity and Thanks to the efforts of all those who are involved with the
Guiding Light Foundation, there will come a new and brighter day tomorrow for
those who are in need. That is our mission and that is our goal – a better life
for the people of I thank you and I encourage each an every one of you to become the next person who chosen to stand in this spot a year from now. Good night and may God bless. (Smile, give the ‘V’ sign for
victory, walk off holding the award up high and proudly.) -- 30 -- |