Making a Difference – Page 2 – FindYourBuriedTreasure

Together Again!

I spent the weekend in Duluth – Georgia, not Minnesota – attending a Toastmasters District Conference. It was our first live conference since Spring of 2019, and it felt wonderful to be there again, live and in person. Numerous safety measures were in place, including mask and social distancing rules and recommendations, and a requirement for proof of a negative COVID test taken 24 hours before the start of the Conference. A testing station was set up near the registration table at the hotel, for [...]

By bettyliedtke|April 25th, 2022|Achieving Dreams and Goals, Columns, Making a Difference, Toastmasters, Values|Comments Off

An Unusual Day

It was an unusual day, to say the least. I spent a fair amount of last Wednesday morning at the police station and in court. And I spent part of the afternoon in the sheriff’s office. I was also in the city and county administrative offices and, for good measure, the county animal shelter – which is right next door to the sheriff’s office, although I don’t think they’re related. I hope you’ve already assumed I wasn’t taken to any of these places by the [...]

By bettyliedtke|December 6th, 2021|Accountability, Columns, Making a Difference, Quotes and Sayings, Values|Comments Off

A Class Act

There were 14 of us in the class. Some, especially those who grew up in this area, already knew a few of the others, but I was among those who knew no one else before beginning the class. By the end of the first class and the weekend retreat, however, we were all well acquainted, and more excited than ever about what we were going to accomplish. I wrote about this class a few weeks ago. It’s a Leadership program sponsored by the Chamber of [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 15th, 2021|Accountability, Columns, Gifts and Talents, Making a Difference|Comments Off

A Bright and Sunny Forecast

It was gloomy and rainy here for most of the past week – to the point where we had some lakes forming in the low spots in our yard, and the storm was regularly knocking out our satellite TV reception. When the sun came out briefly toward the end of the week, it looked so strange I almost called the authorities to report seeing a UFO. Gloomy weather usually doesn’t put me in a gloomy mood, but it was definitely heading in that direction, especially [...]

By bettyliedtke|October 10th, 2021|Achieving Dreams and Goals, Columns, Gifts and Talents, Making a Difference, Values, Writing|Comments Off

On the Road Again

We were returning home from Chicago after attending a family funeral, when one of the car’s warning lights went on. A rear tire was losing air. We weren’t exactly in the middle of nowhere, but it sure felt like it. We were somewhere between Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, in an area of mountains and trees and a number of miles between towns. We finally reached the next exit, and pulled into the gas station closest to the interstate. My husband put air in the tire [...]

By bettyliedtke|September 18th, 2021|Columns, Making a Difference, Travel, Values|Comments Off

Happy Mother’s Day!

I want to wish a Happy Mother’s Day today to all the moms reading this, and also to everyone who’s done any “mothering” – especially over the past year. The need for caretakers has been astronomical during this extremely challenging year, and many people have taken on roles and responsibilities they never imagined themselves in. People I already considered to be unsung heroes – teachers and healthcare workers being high on the list – found their jobs becoming even more demanding. Many of them rose [...]

By bettyliedtke|May 9th, 2021|Columns, Family, Health and Well-being, Holidays, Making a Difference, Values|Comments Off

A Champion for Change

“Champions for Change” is the name of the feature, and I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was when I saw one of the champions being showcased – a young man named Lual Mayen. He was born as his family was fleeing South Sudan, and has lived more than 22 years in a refugee camp in northern Uganda. The first time he ever saw a computer was in 2007 during a refugee registration, and after he told his mother he wanted to buy [...]

By bettyliedtke|September 18th, 2020|Achieving Dreams and Goals, Columns, Gifts and Talents, Making a Difference, Uganda, Values|Comments Off

A plea for help

My blog this week is a plea for help, one that will benefit people in desperate circumstances in one of the poorest countries in the world. Yet it has to do with the medical crisis that is affecting us all – here in the United States and around the world, including the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Southwest Uganda. Those who have been regular readers of my column and blog know about my work in Uganda with Pathways to Hope Africa, including several trips to the [...]

By bettyliedtke|June 5th, 2020|Columns, Health and Well-being, Making a Difference, Uganda, Values|Comments Off

No black or white answers

“We’re black, aren’t we?” That’s the question my friend’s five-year-old granddaughter asked her this morning. Her heart broke when she heard the question, and mine broke when she told me about it. It broke even more when she told me her granddaughter’s next question, in which she asked about a close family friend. “She’s white, isn’t she?” It’s not as though her granddaughter didn’t recognize the difference in skin color before, it’s just that it didn’t matter. But now it did, enough to bring questions [...]

By bettyliedtke|May 29th, 2020|Columns, Family, Making a Difference, Values|Comments Off

Imagine a World…

My weekly project last week was tackling one of the shelves in my office closet – the one that holds, among other things, notebooks, binders, and workbooks from some of the many classes I’ve taken over the years. Most of them have to do with writing or professional speaking, and I haven’t really looked at them in a long time. In a way, going through them was like looking at old scrapbooks or photo albums. In another way, it was a bit like looking in [...]

By bettyliedtke|March 6th, 2020|Accountability, Achieving Dreams and Goals, Buried Treasure, Columns, Making a Difference, Quotes and Sayings, Respect, Values|Comments Off

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