Fort Dodge is a blue-collar community and is located a few miles from US 20 approximately 1.5 hours northwest of Des Moines. Fort Dodge is known for its Gypsum which is quarried and manufactured into wallboard. Fort Dodge produces 75% of all of Iowa's Gypsum and the mineral is one of the most pure in the world. At one time the city was inhabited by 30,000 citizens however with factories moving overseas and the closing of the meat packaging plant Fort Dodge has seen 5000 residents move away to more promising jobs.

I was asked to speak at Fair Oaks and Phillips by Ann Halibur who is Fort Dodge Hy-Vee's marketing representative. Over 95% of the students I have spoken to have treated me almost as if I am a celebrity. And yet in Fort Dodge, I wasn't offered such luxuries. These were tough kids who were used to challenging authority.

When I started my speech saying to these kids that dreams do indeed come true, I was greeted with hisses and a few kids actually whistled as I spoke to try to distract me. But I hadn't spent the last three months talking to tens of thousands of students about living out dreams to be whistled off stage now.

I didn't take offense and I certainly wasn't intimidated. I was being challenged because these kids didn't see the light. All that they believed in their future was trucking or mining Gypsum salts. But they did have a future and I was there to inspire them to believe in their dreams. A gift knows no boundaries. A gift doesn't descriminate between rich, poor, or middle class or by race. But a gift does require risk-taking and this is what these children feared most of all - To take that risk and still fail. These students were comfortable with the status quo and here was this speaker encouraging them to dream big.

As educators what students seek most of all are real stories that can offer children guidance. Video games are a form of entertainment with very little substance, so when I offer students Erin's success story they're willing to listen because they begin to realize that dreams take effort on their part and all children are really asking for is a real shot and maybe then they'll buy into the program. To know that my daughter, Erin, who was bullied and picked on at the age of 8 and then by the age of 12 rose to such heights as to be an All Star Little League pitcher - this is real. I could have heard a pin drop when I then told these students about Erin now being in both Cooperstown and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

All children aspire for greatness. The problem is that most students need a mentor to help guide them along the way. I can't commit to 40,000 students but I can at least create that spark. It is within you students at Fort Dodge if you're willing to believe and commit to the dream that you have been given.