Happy Holidays!!

 

        It is that time of the year again. With Thanksgiving ended and today being Black Friday, we move into the Christmas Season. This is the eighth Christmas Season I have spent living in Colorado Springs, CO. The Year 2017 was not as good as the Mountain Top Year I had in 2015, but it was a lot better than 2016 and there were a lot of highlights to be sure.

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          I have really enjoyed being a member of Gateway Presbyterian Church along with my best friend in Colorado, Dan Brown. After a couple years of being a member, I decided to join the Chancel Choir in January of 2017. I attended my first rehearsal in January 2017. I have fully enjoyed being in the choir during this last year. I did a couple of solos during the summer while the choir was off.

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      In April 2017, I got to be on the local radio show, “The Story Project” for the third time. I told my story, “The Black Iron Box” which is about the Pulmonary Embolism and near-death experience I had in the summer of 2016. By the spring of 2017, “The Story Project” had just become a Radio Show which was broadcasted on 91.5 FM (KRCC). The first two times I was on the Story Project in previous years, it was both a Radio and Public T.V. Show. I plan to do one more appearance on The Story Project hopefully in the spring of 2018.

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          Speaking of stories, this year I embarked on a bucket list project which I went to work on also during the Month of January 2017. Over 20 years ago, I was winning Toastmasters Speech Contests by making up and telling stories, and a fellow Toastmaster Member and good friend told me that I had missed my call in life, that I should have been writing a book of short stories for children. He stated that I probably would have become a millionaire. That became a bucket list item in my life, but I kept putting it off year after year. After my Massive Pulmonary Embolism on July 9, 2016; I realized an old saying, “Life is too short.” I could put it off no longer. So after New Year’s Day 2017, I began to pull a lot of the award winning stories and other speeches I have given in Toastmasters, put them into storybook form, and combine them into a treasury book of Children’s Short Stories entitled: “W.E.B. Tales.” W.E.B. is my initial name which stands for William Edwin Baxter. I recently finished the book, and in 2018, I will be searching for a way to get it published, which won’t be easy.

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          Last May, The Arc of the Pikes Peak Region, which is an organization which helps people with disabilities, asked me to sing the National Anthem for The Arc of the Pikes Peak Region’s Annual Awards Banquet. That was a great experience. The Arc has let me know that I am part of the Self Advocacy Movement in America, and I started getting more active during this last year. I wrote a series of short articles on the “Realities of Being a Self-Advocate” which were all published by The Arc of the Pikes Peak Region on their website during this last summer. I got to sing the National Anthem at the Toastmasters Southern Colorado Division Speech Contest in October a few days after my 63rd Birthday. The Southern Colorado Division is one of seven divisions which make up Toastmasters International District 26, which covers all of Colorado and Wyoming, plus the pan handle of Nebraska. As of November 4th, 2017; I have been a Member of Toastmasters International now for 27 years. The District 26 Newsletter wanted to publish a story of my 27 years as a Toastmaster for the December 2017 Issue and it will be out in a couple of weeks. I have been a Member of Colorado Springs Toastmasters (Club 555) and District 26 for seven years now.

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            On Patriot Day (September 11, 2017) I celebrated my Five Year Anniversary being employed with Service Source Inc. Service Source in Colorado Springs hires people with disabilities to work as Civilian Contract Workers out at the U.S. Army Post in Fort Carson. That is it for this year. It was a good year, and I have hopes that 2018 will be too. I hope all of you have a Wonderful Christmas and a Great New Year in 2018!

 

Sincerely,

Bill Baxter.