In a few hours, we will be closing up the Omicron Delta Kappa National Headquarters and spreading out across the region to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends. Since the office won’t be open the rest of this week, today is functionally “my Friday.” So, here is a special edition of Friday Fusion – just delivered on a Wednesday.
Next week, Omicron Delta Kappa will celebrate its 99th birthday on Tuesday, December 3, 2013. At the celebration we have planned for that afternoon at OΔK National Headquarters, we will honor our past, celebrate the present, and position our future. In recognition of our heritage at that event, we will discuss the vision of the fifteen Founders of OΔK; however, today we offer fifteen points of appreciation and gratitude in their honor.
1. We are first thankful, as we look forward to OΔK’s 100th birthday, for all who have gone before to make this organization what it is today.
2. Each day, we are grateful for our fantastic student leaders who are already well on their way to becoming the community leaders of tomorrow.
3. We celebrate and appreciate our alumni, faculty, staff, and honoris causa members and how they represent the OΔK Idea in their daily lives.
4. We are grateful for our devoted faculty officers who are the embodiment of the special relationship our Founders envisioned for current students and faculty participating together in worthy undertakings.
5. Every day, we are thankful for the work of our many volunteers including those who serve on our committees and represent the interests and concerns of our members.
6. We are excited about and appreciate the members of the Centennial Celebration Committee as they prepare to help welcome our members to the place where OΔK was founded in 1914.
7. We appreciate the vision and guidance provided by the Omicron Delta Kappa Society Board of Directors particularly as our leaders work toward developing the OΔK long-range plan.
8. We are indebted to the members of the Omicron Delta Kappa Foundation Board of Trustees for their leadership in securing support for our organization and their wisdom in managing our resources.
9. We celebrate the energy and commitment expressed by the members of the National Advisory Council and their devotion to the future of OΔK.
10. We appreciate the colleges and universities that host the 281 Circles of Omicron Delta Kappa for the support they provide our organization.
11. We are thankful for our strategic alliance partners including Teach For America and Gallup who also work to advance leadership on a daily basis.
12. We appreciate the warmth and comfort of our wonderful train station home and national headquarters building and the opportunity to work together as a team.
13. We cherish the generosity of our donors who not only assisted with the purchase of our national headquarters, but who also support scholarships, leadership programs, and services to our Circles.
14. We are thankful for people of Lexington and Rockbridge County, Va. who have welcomed OΔK into this community.
15. And we are especially thankful for our neighbors (including the four-legged ones that visit the train station regularly) and our community partners including Washington and Lee University and Virginia Military Institute.
Thanksgiving is undoubtedly my favorite holiday. Like OΔK and our country’s system of higher education, it is the best of the American experience. For OΔK members everywhere, the members of the national staff send to you our wishes for wonderful day of food, family, friends, and fellowship.
