People in this industry are incredible. I have periodically striven to remind them of that, and stressed that beyond an industry workers' compensation is a community. Notably, however, a community by accident. How many people do you know that planned this community as a career path? The vast majority will tell you they happened upon it, fell into it, happenstance, accident, coincidence.
That community appeared in Orlando yet again this August for the "granddaddy of them all," (no, not the Rose Bowl), the WCI Educational Conference. I make an annual pilgrimage here. See An Amazing Monday at WCI (August 2016), Give Kids the Word - Our Community (August 2018), and Live in Orlando (December 2021).
Once, we even Zoomed in when the Great Panic made things impractical, see WCI 2020 - The Virtual Edition (July 2020). Lamenting those impacts, I penned Not the Same and Yet (August 2020). There I recounted running into a retired attorney at the WCI several years ago. I was surprised and questioned "why are you here?" The reply: "it's August, this is where you come in August." Too true, it is hard to picture an August without our trip to this community gathering.
These pages have featured some of the community that draws us. The joy of spending a morning working on the Give Kids the World Village is mentioned in the August 2018 post above. But in December 2021, the WCI leadership allowed Kids' Chance to host a golf tournament at the WCI, and it was a community-building event. See What is Different (December 2021).
On August 21, 2022, I witnessed the second annual event. I focus this morning on two fundamental points here. First, such events are a reinforcement of our community. People gather here. There is fist-bumping, handshaking, conversating, gesticulating, and engagement. It illustrates the workers' compensation community in its diversity and participation. I was fortunate to reconnect with many that I had not seen in months.
The luncheon that follows is what gets to me though. Kids' Chance brought a scholarship participant last December. She explained to the assemblage that Kids' Chance had helped her to attend college where she had majored in ichthyology. She was engaging and enthusiastic. She was a part of our community through personal familial tragedy and loss. Her family was profoundly impacted by a workplace injury. And yet here she was, a successful, articulate, and focused young person taking on the world.
In 2022, They brought two students to the WCI who spoke at the luncheon. One I had met years ago when she began her college journey. To me, she had seemed shy and reserved then. In 2022, she was more outspoken, open, and engaged. She had, over three years of college, grown and matured. She related her personal story of loss from a workplace injury, and the impact on her family. She described the efforts of her surviving parent to overcome that loss and focus her on education and success. She was powerful and inspiring, in a way I cannot imagine I could have ever been at her age.
The second student I met for the first time Sunday. She described to the audience how workers' compensation, a work injury, had affected her. She drew the audience into the immediacy of injury, the impact on family finances, and the emotional impact. She painted a picture of the human element of workers' compensation that is too often overlooked in our community. She was, in a word, compelling.
I was proud of these two. I found myself both pleased to meet them, and yet deeply remorseful that our paths coincided only because each had suffered a profound impact from a work injury. The Golf Tournament guru, Kids' Chance Board Member Basilios Manousogiannakis took the stage immediately after to thank these two incredible young people. Quoting Starsky and Hutch (Warner Brothers, 2004), he insisted "I'm not crying, you're crying." In all honesty, there were probably some dry eyes in the room. In fairness, there were not many. These young people were compelling.
And, they were not alone. I met a young lady wearing a Kids' Chance volunteer shirt. She was introduced to me as "our newest Ambassador." Kids' Chance has community members, ambassadors, that work on its behalf raising awareness and connecting with the workers' compensation community. I had an engaging conversation with her about social media and how organizations like this strive for community connection. She was outspoken, conversational, and interested in the success of Kids' Chance, and the community.
She is so important, critical, and welcome. She related that she just graduated from college. She has begun work and was offered a chance by her employer to engage in the community through some volunteer path. As Rick might say "Of all the (organizations) in all the towns in all the world, she walks into (Kids' Chance).” This is fortuitous for the group. She is what every employer in this community is seeking, the next generation. Another conversation Sunday included the reminder that the workers' compensation community is aging, failing to attract and retain young talent, and yet here was this shining example of our potential.
In a nutshell, this post is about Kids' Chance students. I am immensely proud of these young people that are overcoming diversity and building a future. They are strong, engaging, and focused. In addition, this is about our future, and the promise that is offered with the potential for new, fresh faces. We have to bring the young into this fold. We are, I hate to say it, a community that is threatened. Many of our best and brightest have seen too many harvests, and they long to pass the torch to a new generation. It is sobering to find myself at the end of a career arc and to be lamenting the infrequency of new faces.
But, with the opportunity to meet these youth, I am inspired, enthused, and rejuvenated. I am grateful to the community members who participate in activities that draw professionals together in productive and engaging ways. I am even more appreciative that employers are drawing in young people and facilitating their participation in our community. We need the next generation, their enthusiasm, ideas, and engagement. I am grateful to WCI for its support of students over the decades, but even more so for its support of this community generally.
I am proud to be in this number, this community. I am not yet at the end of my road, but I can see it from here. I appreciate the many I will see here over the next few days, and the opportunity to reconnect and catch up. I hope to meet more young and thoughtful members joining our workers' compensation effort. I find our community empowering and rejuvenating. I hope that us old travelers can somehow find a way to pass this community on to a next, new, and vigorous generation for tomorrow. And, I hope every reader will strive in that direction as well.
