October 2018 Commodores message

My intentions with this commodores’ message is not to give a testimonial to a few but a tribute to the many generations of men and women over the past 80 + years who built and moved the Gilford Park Yacht Club in a direction that got us where we are today.

Everyone has to understand, no one person alone got us where we are today. We are not individuals that act independently but a group of individuals that act as one towards a single goal, the club.
  
OBVIOUSLY, our forefathers don’t have a clue who we are but we do know who they are and we know what they did for the Gilford Park Yacht Club.  We know we would not be here today if it wasn’t for their insight, their dedication and just think they passed on without ever knowing the seeds they planted would turn out to be what we are today.

To all the commodore’s going back more than 80 years, to all the Board of Trustee members and there are many, to all the club members that stuck with the club thru the very hard times in the past and most recently  and finally for all those that stood up to the plate and took a turn at bat and did what they could, when they could, many times over all added to our progress again all without abandoning ship because they knew that the club as a whole is bigger than any one or group of members.
 
After all that the club has gone through especially in the past 7 years, the club as a whole is thankful to one another that no one abandoned ship in fact people were asking MAY I COME ABOARD.  Without these members holding on there would be no club if they chose to abandon ship. There was a increase in membership, and those who joined when we had nothing to offer them,  knew the secrets the club held which is its history, generations of families, community involvement, a fun place to be part of and that view is spectacular.

With the increase in participation, our new members are making the club their home away from home, again because they know that the club as a whole is bigger than any one or group of members this is the true tribute we as members can give each other.

So as a member of the Gilford Park Yacht Club you have a choice, that is to have the same insight as our forefathers had and plant more seeds and watch them grow into a bigger and better club that will carry us into the future or to plant seeds that will germinate into weeds and choke out our club as we know it.

You need to figure out for yourself is it better to lift a finger to help out or stand on the side lines and point fingers at those who are doing.

Just walk away from negativity and gravitate to the positive.

Generation after generation inherits the club and when we pass it on to the next generation we must pass it on better off then how we received it.  This can only be done when we all work together with one common goal, the club.

Your commodore
Ed Horton