If what we're doing seeds a young person so that person can establish his or her roots in the community, then we've had an amazing success.

We clearly don't want to send the message in this program that we don't want people to go to college or that this is a substitute for college.

There is a percentage of kids who don't go on to college for a variety of reasons. And the irony is that, often, those are the kids that are staying in the community and not going away.

It really was an epiphany that some of us had. Every year the Lions Club gives upward to six scholarships to kids who are going on to college.

Whatever you think you are, you are always bigger than that...

From here on out, we've just got to lean on each other and push each other and be there to support each other.