Dear GreatLIFE Member, Team Member & Support Team,
I hope each of you had a nice Christmas with family and friends! It is the first day of 2023 and wishing each of you a successful and meaningful 2023! Last night we had dinner with one of our kids, their spouse and their three kids. During dinner, we asked each of them what they were the most grateful for in 2022. When I look back and being able to have all four of kids, their spouses and our 9 grand kids enjoy each other, live and grow up here in Sioux Falls, I realize we have been blessed beyond anything I could have dreamed of where our life would take us.
10 years ago this past December, we introduced GreatLIFE to Sioux Falls with a mission of “To enrich the lives of families and individuals through golf, fitness and healthy lifestyles”. Thanks to our focus on our mission, we have been able to develop a culture and Team of committed, caring Leaders. Currently, we have over 20% of the Sioux Falls population belonging to GreatLIFE! We will continue to improve on friendliness and cleanliness with the goal of building long term relationships with each of you.
At GreatLIFE, we have basically one rule “Think before you act, do what is right and take care of one another”. If every decision and action taken, is done with this in mind, we will build stronger relationships and be successful.
A big part of our success is having an “Attitude of Gratitude” and an ownership mentality of our Team Members and Leaders. I firmly believe that your attitude is absolutely critical to living a meaningful and successful life. Having a servant leader’s mind set, you succeed by helping others succeed. Catching people doing things right and making a big deal about it builds relationships, trust and teams.
Like most of you, I have found that I get more out of what I do for others than the recipients. It makes me and everyone around me better. My old friend Arch Bishop Carlson has said to me many times “God won’t be outdone in generosity” which I have changed to “God won’t be outdone in generosity and kindness”. What I have also learned, is we have more “God-cidences” in our lives than coincidences. Good people and good things happen for a reason although at the time we may not realize it.
This past July I was invited back on the Los Cabos Children’s Foundation board of directors that I started over 20 years ago down in the Southern Baja. If any of you have ever visited the Los Cabos area, you have experienced the beauty of the ocean, mountains and weather but you truly fall in love with Cabo because of the people who live and work there.
This past May, we met with the BOD of Teleton, the biggest children philanthropy organization in all of Mexico and they approved us to build a CRIT, a children’s rehabilitation center in Los Cabos. With that approval, we are working on developing a children’s medical campus with a number of services and facilities. You can learn more about LCCF at www.loscaboschildren.org if interested!
January is national Mentoring month. Three years ago, we introduced legendary football coach Tom Osborne’s Teammates Mentoring program to Sioux Falls to go along with Mayor Paul TenHaken’s Sioux52 mentoring initiative. Please consider becoming a TeamMates Mentor by learning more at www.siouxfallsteammates.org if interested. It is a 30 to 45 minute mentoring session in school with a child. I will guarantee you it will be one of the best times of your week! You will leave with a smile on your face and a sense of engagement and purpose!
Thanks for being a GreatLIFE Member. One of the 30+ programs we support down in the Baja is Autism Awareness. Enclosed is a video of A young girl, written off as non-verbal, through the magic of music, and against all odds, found her voice. The other day I got the enclosed video that I hope you enjoy, you may want to watch it more than once, Hallelujah! Again, best wishes in 2023!
Tom