This is the script to my address to the Regional Meeting of the Odd Fellows where I was invited to represent the Town and to be the guest speaker... Many thanks to the local Odd Fellows organizing committee. I appreciate the invitation and the opportunity to speak.
Making a Difference
Thank you…
Newfoundland
and Labrador delegates of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows., On behalf of
Mayor Frazer Russell, Council and the entire town, I would like to wish you a
warm welcome to Clarenville. I trust
your meetings over the course of this weekend will be productive and you
fellowship inspiring.
It always
gives me great pleasure to see people from all over the province come to
Clarenville because I know that the people in this town, especially the people who
make up this lodge locally are some of the same people who have contributed to
making Clarenville such a great home for me.
I also know these people embody the ideals of the IOOF within our
community (Friendship, Love and Truth)– and I would suggest that in fact all of
you embody these same ideals in your own communities.
My name is
Paul Tilley, and although Tilley’s are one of the founding families of this
town, I am not one of them – I’m a Buchans Tilley and I can proudly say that I
am a child of an Odd Fellow – my mother, Rosanna Tilley was a Rebecca at the
lodge in Buchans. Early on, I understood
what the IOOF and FLT rings stood for.
Of course my major kick with the IOOF hall lay in the fact that as a 12
year old I got to play bingo there a couple of times and won on both occasions!
($25!). My mother was an active member
and both my parents were active in the community (particularly in the church)
in Buchans. They too embodied the basic
ideals of the lodge and I would hope that some of their influence has rubbed
off on me.
On those
basic ideals, the IOOF is dedicated to the following stated purposes:
·
To
improve and elevate the character of mankind by promoting the principles of
friendship, love, truth, faith, hope, charity and universal justice.
·
To
help make the world a better place to live by aiding each other in times of
need and by organizing charitable projects and activities that would benefit
the less fortunate, the youth, the elderly, the environment and the community
in every way possible.
·
To
promote good will and harmony amongst peoples and nations through the principle
of universal fraternity, holding the belief that all men and women regardless
of race, nationality, religion, social status, gender, rank and station are
brothers and sisters
·
To
promote a wholesome fraternal experience without violence, vices and
discrimination of every form.
Noble
virtues indeed!
Over the
years I’ve done a lot of courses and, in my capacity as a College instructor, I
have had the opportunity to teach a lot of students. From all of this, and into all of this, I
have developed and I promote a real appreciation for the importance of these basic
ideals and of being involved in one’s community and contributing one’s time,
talent and treasure as much as possible to making the places we call home
better for everyone.
Today, we
call this “citizenship”.
Many people
are lamenting the fact that citizenship activities are on the decline as we see
a trend of busy people with busy lives focusing more on themselves and less on
the health of society.
This
self-focus is not new to our “civilized’ world.
If we think back to the beginning of the industrial revolution (18th
century) the focus then too was on getting ahead (Dickens’- Scrooge). It was odd to find people who followed noble
values such as benevolence, charity and fraternalism. This condition that society found itself in
at the time was indeed the inspiration for the founding of the Odd Fellow’s movement
- “Odd” as it was to aspire to a better
society, time has proven that it was the right thing to do and the right time
to do it.
Today is no
different.
I
appreciate that Lodges, like many towns across this province, are facing some
serious challenges of declining membership and aging members. The noble
objectives that the lodge aspires to are however not in decline. Many of you have dedicated your lives to the
benevolent work of this organization – and I would bet that you have also been
the ones in your community, and in other organizations (town councils included)
that have lived, breathed and demonstrated these same ideals. Thank You for that.
It’s been
an education for me in preparation for tonight to discuss with Lindo Palmer a
few of the things that the Clarenville Lodge has done. Considering its relatively small size of the
local lodge it is truly inspiring. Help for the Hospital, help for patients,
help for Age Friendly, help for students through Scholarships, Help for
Diabetes & Spinabifata - The list was long and the contribution was great –
and that is just Clarenville’s contribution.
That is fantastic and you I/Clareville/Your Community commend you all
for your great work and dedication.
I’d
encourage you to share your work ethic and your work, and the work of the
lodge. I feel our society, like the
society of old England, is in need of hearing the message that the ‘Odd” values
are the right values towards Making A Difference in our communities.
Thank you!
Such events prove that teachers have to learn for all their life at least while they work at school. To my mind it is not honest to make your children develop if you don`t do it yourself. We usually expect our learners to create each paper better(however they ask help can't do my essay ) as we want to see a progress. So each new lesson should be a little bit better too, and it doesn`t matter how many lessons you have prepared before. When I tried this way I realized that my professional life became more interesting.
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