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The UPS Man Delivered
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One of the benefits of a freelance writing job is that, although I have no children, I am afforded many opportunities to be with them and see them in the many variations of youthful change. I enjoy that. That's why when FOCUS publisher, Tammy Panther, suggested doing this feature on Project Potential and offered to ask Chair, Sally Blackwelder to gather some information about it and send it to me I knew it was a writing job that must be done. It was a story with "potential," and something worthy of my time and great fondness for young people experiencing the many stages in their lives.
The executive board of Project Potential boasts a healthy list of Hickory
notables: Sally Blackwelder, George Blackwelder, Dr. Cuylar Dunbar,
Sandi Fotheringham, Boyd L. George, Dr. Duane Kirkman, Dr. Wayne Powell,
Carol Robinson, and Grace Shuford. New board members this year also
include Danny Hearn, Steve Neuville and Charles Snipes. One board member in particular, Kelley Jarrett, is a teacher and, for
all appearances, she is very much at ease being the "woman behind
the man," Winston Cup Champion and guest speaker for the Project
Potential Banquet, Dale Jarrett. The Jarretts reside in the Hickory
area and are the parents of 4 children. And, while we always see the
Nascar Champion's wife sitting in the background quietly supporting
her husband as he blasts around the many grand race tracks in his UPS
sponsored car, on this night, it was "The UPS Man" standing
at the podium supporting his wife in a cause that is clearly very important
to him as well. And boy, did he deliver. The Dale Jarrett, we were privy to that evening was very gracious,
humble and naturally confident. And, while the population of the Nascar
Nation just gets to see him through the glitz of the world of racing,
this fine, Southern gentleman had the class and respect to step back
and let the spotlight shine on 5 very special, hardworking students.
This year's graduates are: Marcus Fambrough, Blake Frederick, Julian
Lopez, Dorshaun Pearson, LaShonda Peterson and Alex Wilson. Each student was allowed the chance to take the podium and deliver
their notes of appreciation and support. Each face was gleaming with
hope, pride and just enough innocence to take a flying leap at running
for the roses in the race of life. The 2005 Project Potential recipients are as follows: Annie Adkins,
Storm Brown, Elisha Carter, Lacoya Fullenwilder, Berenice Martinez,
Alexandria Moon, Juan Rios, Talia Wright, Mayra Anaya, Kadie Ferguson,
Fernando Flores, Lynette Fuller, Deanena Humphries, Christian Rangel,
Susie Vang, and Shamia Wray. And then, #88 Dale Jarrett rose to the podium.
"I’ve had these things written down. I don’t know
that I’ve ever been very good at reading things because I think
a lot of it has to come from the heart. Especially after the things
that we heard a minute ago. Those are the kind of things that you really
want to hear, these young people speaking from the their heart about
the things that mean a lot to them and, I’ll try to get through
this as quickly as I can and, hopefully, there’s something there,
a little message for those of you who are graduating and those who are
just coming on board with this. Kelley’s been telling me about
this for a long time, but I travel a lot and am gone but I still love
to call Hickory and Catawba County home and do that obviously. I’ve
heard a lot about this Project Potential for a lot years because Kelly
is a teacher and so this is near and dear to her heart and I think tonight
I’m seeing exactly what she’s talking about. I’ve
always had a good feeling about it and realized that it was something
that we needed to do for our community. "Tonight we’re privileged to honor 2 groups of students.
Obviously they accepted the Project Potential Challenge. They set their
goal and obtained it. The other group should be honored to have been
nominated and selected and are in the very first stages of accepting
this same challenge. You are very fortunate students because you have
3 things going for you that guarantees you have the opportunity for
a successful life. Obviously not everyone gets those. You have people
who believe in you. You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for
that. You have teachers that nominated you, parents who love you and
now mentors who are excited about helping you on this journey." At this juncture, it was obvious to me and probably others in the room
that Mr. Dale has a very large heart and uses it with great fluency
when it comes to speaking. "Second, you obviously like challenges. ( I kind of get chills
when I talk like that because that’s something that’s near
and dear to my heart is a challenge and I’ll tell you a little
about that later). If I didn’t think that you liked a challenge
you obviously wouldn’t have accepted the Project Potential Challenge
and that tells me that you are a worker, that you want the most out
of your life, and that you are willing to work very hard to get what
you want. "Third, you are a goal setters and many of your accomplishments
in life will result out of charting a path, setting goals and striving
to reach them. Some of you have met your goals by graduation. Your goal
(for the new recruits) now is to be where they are in 4 years. "Now, a little bit has been said about what I do. I drive a race
car. It may not seem very important. Probably in the scheme of things
it’s not very important. If you’re into entertainment, I
guess it does a little bit about that. Many of you probably don’t
know the history of where I came from, Mr. Blackwelder spoke of my dad
(Ned Jarrett) who was a champion in the racing business also many years
before it really became popular. I’m very fortunate to be part
of something that has grown tremendously over the years. Because my
dad was a champion maybe it was an obvious thing for me to go right
in to driving a race car and it moved from there and that life was easy
that Dale Jarrett had his opportunity to just go drive a race car and
everything has just been rosy since. Well that’s not exactly the
way it happened. We won’t go all the way back to the start in
1977 when I finally got an opportunity to drive a race car for the first
time but I will tell you that my dad retired when I was very young so
those opportunities to get involved weren’t exactly there. "I played a lot of sports . . . wanted to be an athlete for sure,
knew that's what I wanted to do. But I think we have to realize there's
such a very, very small percentage of people that get to become the
atheletes that we want to be when we are young. Just because my dad
was a race car driver didn't guarantee that I could drive one. What
that did was present me with more challenges. Two friends of mine built
a race car and I started driving it and that was my first goal was to
get that opportunity. And, so I thought of it that first night that
was exactly what I wanted to do. Didn't know how I was going to go about
doing it because I was 20 years old and still no money, but I knew that's
what I wanted to do was to drive a race car. "And it might seem a little strange, I'll stop here a second and
... it may seem a little strange for someone and you're probably sitting
there thinking 'Well, where does college come into play here?' And it
may seem a little strange that you have somone that did not attend college
up here talking to you about your education and going to college but
I think that's why I can give you a little better insight into that.
Lenoir-Rhyne was one school that I was good enough to have been offered
a scholarship to, but I chose to try to get into the racing profession.
But, I guarantee you that I don't look back on many things. I'm 48 years
old now. I've been very, very successful and very, very fortunate and
very blessed in my life. And, I don't know that I'd redo anything but
one of the things I might redo would have been to rethink my education
process, finished a little harder my senior year in school and think
of those 4 years of college to prepare myself in case I wouldn't have
been quite so lucky, because I've been very fortunate. And, I like to
think that I've been pretty good at what I do, too and that's helped
a little bit. "I've been very, very fortunate. Not everybody is that fortunate.
So I'd like to instruct you to make a little better path for yourself
just in case that 'first thing' doesn't work out for you, the thing
you really want to do. That's the great thing about the place where
we live, is that we have that opportunity to do and be whatever we want
to be - we are presented that. And this Project Potential is giving
you that opportunity to go do those things. "Now, once again, it wasn't an easy road. My college education
kind of came as building my own race team and to do that I had to go
borrow some money and they didn't have any scholarships to get a race
team, so that was kind of my college education. Not only did I learn
to drive a race car but what I had to do was learn to run a business
because I had this team and somebody had to pay the bills and find the
sponsors. Besides being able to have to do all that then I worked on
the race cars and once I got the race cars ready, I put them on the
tow truck and drove the tow truck to the race track just so I could
drive the race car. So, it wasn't quite as easy as it may have seemed.
"I even got fired one time. Gosh, the thought of that . . . I
hate using that word. But you know, sometimes those things are going
to happen. Don't let those type of set-backs stop you. We all go through
them. I would imagine if you could sit down and have a minute with the
very successful people that are here - we've all been through a lot
of those same things, just in different businesses to the point where
we have those bumps in the road. We've had people telling us that we
couldn't do it. Gosh, that's the one thing that fired me up more than
anything - somebody telling me I couldn't do something. You probably
have those (kind of remarks)occasionally. Sometimes it will be just
a ploy to get you a little more excited about things. Sometimes people
really mean that...unfortunately. Sometimes that hurts, but we can't
let that get in our way. "You know as I look back on those days, there are some ways that
I'm much like what you are right now. The 3 things that I think each
of you have, the ones of you that have graduated and the ones that are
just coming on board. I had people who did believe in me: my family,
my wife Kelley, my dad - huge supporters there. Just like your family
and your mentors are with you. I've been told at autograph sessions
and things by young people they say, 'Yeah, you're such a fast driver
and you do such a great job.' I tell them I'm not even sure I'm the
fastest driver in my family. Just ask the Hickory Police around here. "So, just like you I had people who believed in me. I said earlier
I love a challenge, just like you. I especially liked proving wrong
those people who thought I couldn't do it. I still like to do that now.
I'm 48 now so it's easy for them to say, "Ah, he's too old to do
it." But, they're wrong about that too, so we just keep going. "Everybody wants to know what my dad told me as a young guy that
got me going. He told me many things. . . a lot things I didn't listen
to, you know. The one thing I always remember him telling me, that's
always stuck with me and it was the one thing that is pretty simple
it's: 'Always treat others the way that you want to be treated.' It's
not very difficult to do either if you really think about it. But it
will take you a long way if you will just think and act in a way that
you would want to be treated." "Also included in these 3 things we have in common, I have something
that each of you will have and need to make you sucessful in your life
and that's heart and perseverence. And those 2 things will take you
wherever you want to go. I'll assure you, if you have the heart and
desire and the willingness to work hard at whatever it is that you want
to do there's nothing out here right now that's going to stop you from
doing that. You are being extended right now that opportunity to move
forward. And, I hope each of you take it and use it well and I know
that you will." For more information on Project Potential, contact Cathy Blackwelder, Program Facilitator/Project Potential, Hickory Public Schools, 432 4th Ave. NW, Hickory, NC 28602 (828)322-2855, ext. 255 Peace. -Sara Mawyer
Copyright 2005 Tucker Productions, Inc. |
