During the 90’s in my aviation career I traveled the world. After a few 8, 10 and 14 hour flights you begin to realize how small your backyard is.
I enjoy meeting new people and making friends, worldwide. After a brief conversation I usually discover common ground and thus a “connection” is made. The more connections you make away from your backyard the smaller the world becomes.
Enter the Internet. Now my travels are limited and mostly within the county I live in. Once a year I do go to Las Vegas for my annual trade show and congregate with 15,000 peers (the world comes to me).
Social Networking
I enter the Facebook site on average twice a day, LinkedIn twice a day and email many times a day. I’ve made a Facebook friend of a guy in Wyoming I’ve never met; he’s 26-years old. We have an instant connection even though we never met and there’s so many years difference in our ages.
Google Alerts
I’ve got Google Alerts set to email me when the name John Prusa hits the Internet. I got an email this morning.
On Wednesday, June 29th 2011, John Prusa was honored by his local chamber of commerce as the 2011 Volunteer of the Year. John was not present to receive the award; my guess is he was busy volunteering somewhere.
Will the real John Prusa please stand up?
- John Prusa of Evanston, Wyoming is a Facebook friend. How many Facebook friends do you have with your name?
- I also have Johny Prusa from the Prague, Czech Republic friended on facebook.
- The 2011 Volunteer of the Year is John Prusa, owner of Highpoint Lawn Service in Stow, Ohio (34 miles south of Cleveland) and one of the founders of BEST (Benefiting Everyone with Stadium Turf) for Stow.
In addition to owning a successful business in Ohio and New York for almost 20 years, Prusa is a member of the high school booster club, Rotary Club, was a former president of the Ballet Theatre of Ohio and has always enjoyed coaching softball.
Calling a tractor a second home, [Prusa] has selflessly helped transform the football practice fields and soccer fields at the Stow Munroe Falls high school complex from fields of dusty brown to shimmering green. This entrepreneur has contributed time, talent, and treasure to the construction of the bathroom, concession and storage building located by the high school softball fields.
The people you meet and the company you keep.
I sure wish I knew these guys personally. I’ll bet we’d have a great time together and find much in common besides our names.
I’ll bet if I walked the streets of Stow, Ohio or talked to the football coach at the high school they’d all not believe who I am. But once they heard the story I’d make a connection and a new friend. What do you think?
You can send a note of congratulations to John Prusa @ Highpoint Lawn Service, 1337 Commerce Drive # 4, Stow, OH 44224-1758. You know my policy of using blue ink in correspondence so use it. I’ll be sending a copy of this article along with my promotional items of pens, lanyards and notepads.
