Conference Refresher: Altrusa Dreamin'

Past Governor Debbie Mabry delivered this Accent during the opening session of this year's Conference. I fell in love with it at the time, and thought it would be nice to give you all a reminder now that we're well into the new biennium.

We gather this weekend for our 57^th District Nine Conference, with a very appropriate theme of “Altrusa Dreamin’.” Appropriate because almost 100 years ago, that is exactly what a small group of women were doing – Altrusa Dreamin’.  Do you think that 96 years ago, these women had any idea of where their dreams and plans would lead?

Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon said “We spend a good part of our lives dreaming, especially when we're awake.” That is what this conference, the ones before this one, the ones that will come after this one, is all about – dreaming when we are awake.

·        Dreaming about what our hopes and aspirations are for our communities.

·        Dreaming about a world that is a good place for all of us to live;

·        Dreaming about leaving this place a little better than we found it.

We all know about the dreamers in our past – people like Mamie L. Bass, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dr. Nina Fay Calhoun, Edith Debusk and so many other Altrusans who shared their dreams and plans for a better world have brought us to where we are today for this conference.

I want to share a story about another dreamer in our world – not an Altrusan, but I think he would have made a great Altrusan.  Born in 1846, he was raised in Chicago by immigrant parents who ingrained in him a strong belief that man should strive to be of service to others.

After failing admission tests for Harvard and Yale, and an unsuccessful stint at politics, Daniel Burnham became an architect.  At 26 years old, he met his soon to be partner, and they began building buildings.  Not just any building, BIG buildings.

·        The first skyscraper in Chicago – the Masonic building (21 stories tall)

·        The flatiron building in New York City

·        The Union Station in Washington DC

·        In 1906, his firm designed the “Plan of Chicago” which laid out the future plans for the entire city of Chicago.

What a dreamer! He would have made a great Altrusan!

Daniel Burnham also penned some words that have remained alive and quoted for well over the past century.  I first read them 38 years ago, and I have never forgotten them.  I would like to share them with you:

“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.”

Dream Big, Altrusans – remember that OUR sons, daughters, Grandsons and granddaughters, nieces, nephews and young neighbors are going to stand on our shoulders, they are going to follow our lead and dream big and they will do things that will stagger us.