ONE TEAM – ONE VOICE

You are constantly hearing the statement, “We are all in this together,” “We all play for the same team,” or some similar phrase when discussing the need for all MTs to stick together and speak with one voice. Recently Barb Marques and I had an experience that allowed us to see this concept in action in the animal world.

I was visiting Barb at her lovely home in Oregon recently and we decided to walk down to her neighbor’s home who raises alpacas. Just as we arrived we quickly noticed one of the girls was about to give birth. We stood quietly and watched as she made an interesting noise following which every other female in the pen gathered around her, apparently to provide encouragement or support or both. The babies all gathered by the fence and watched carefully as if they knew something big was happening and they needed to watch and learn. As soon as the new baby was born all of the females proceeded to leave the mother and tend to the newbie in their midst. They cooed at it, they nudged it, and they made sure it remained safe until it could get up on its feet at which point the mother, now sufficiently rested, got up and proceeded to take over her baby’s care.

This was an amazing experience for both of us and right away we started thinking of a way to share this story with members.

Just like all of the others in that alpaca pen, those of us with experience need to step up to the plate and mentor our own newbies. It is not only an amazing experience but we believe it is our responsibility to “pay it forward” as it were. AHDI has been very important in our lives and whether one steps up to run for local office, state office, national office, spearhead one of AHDI’s initiatives, start a Power of 10 fundraising drive, mentor a student or two, or three, sponsor someone who cannot afford AHDI membership, share your room at Advocacy or ACE with a newbie who might otherwise not be able to attend, etc., etc., etc. There are so many things each of us can do to support and encourage others that we just have one question: “What will you do to join the One Team One Voice effort?”