The Gordon Clark Scholarship Fund
A donation in your name will be made in the amount of $444 when clients mention their interest in this benevolent cause.
Gehrig, Molitor, and Favre - 4 4 4
One of many things these three athletes have in common (besides their jersey numbers, of course) is community service. In fact, the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award is based solely on character, and Paul Molitor was a recipient of this honor in 1998.
Along these lines, The Gordon Clark Scholarship Fund is a way that our family gives back to the community. It helps local kids pay for their college educations. These are not merely kids in need, but students who have proven themselves with a work ethic along the lines of these three extraordinary athletes.
If you work with me, I will not only do my best to help you with the purchase or sale of your home, but I will take the time to get to know you and your family. My goal is to find clients for life, so it's more than just a job to me. Clients and I have played golf, tennis, and poker. My wife and I have been invited to weddings and receptions after meeting people through real estate, and have had dozens of lunches and dinners with the nice folks I've met in the past three years in this field.
When you take the time to get to know me by visiting this somewhat off-the-beaten-path page, then the students who earn this scholarship will know that you and your family helped them when they receive their awards. Click here to learn more about the scholarship itself.
Chronologically, here is the last #4, Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers. My dad, brother, and nephew and I saw this Monday Night game back in 2004 (photo on the left) his 200th consecutive start. Every true football fan remembers the Monday Night game in Oakland in December of 2003 the day after he lost his father - 2nd photo. When we attended the 1 January 2006 game (#3) everyone thought that it might be his last. Thankfully, we were wrong. Two of my uncles were at the playoff game on 1/12/08 in the snow against Seattle, and my step-mother and her dad went to the near-epic NFC title game against Dallas on 12/31/67 - The Ice Bowl.
This athlete is special to me because of his off-the-field heroics as much as anything else. His Favre Fourward Foundation has raised and donated over 1.5 million dollars to help worthy causes in both Mississippi and Wisconsin. I was raised in the small town of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and have relatives in Mississippi. They are great places to call home and full of people who genuinely care about one another.
Born in Milwaukee, my family moved to Green Bay when I was still an infant. 1979 was the first baseball season I clearly remember as an eight-year-old kid; Pittsburgh's Willie Stargell and Dave Parker coming back from a 1 - 3 deficit against Baltimore was amazing to watch. "The Brew Crew in '82" was also known for their powerful offense. They lost the 1982 World Series in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals the same way the Orioles did three years earlier. Still, it was exciting to see the home team make it so far.
"Molly" was one of many fantastic players for the Milwaukee Brewers. Paul Molitor was nearly a hometown boy (St. Paul, MN), and he played from his Rookie of the Year season in 1978 to 1992 with the Brewers. In 1993 he earned the World Series MVP with Toronto. During a 21-year career, Molitor had a .306 batting average and 3,319 hits.
"In 1998, in his last season as an active player, Molitor won the Branch Rickey Award, which is given to major league players for their community service, and the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award, which goes to someone who best exemplifies the giving character of the onetime Yankees first baseman." Source - baseballhalloffame.org
Lou Gehrig may have been one of the first true ambassadors of the game. Even after leaving baseball Mayor LaGuardia asked Lou to help wayward kids as part of the Parole Board for the city of New York.
Possisbly the most inspirational and unassuming athlete in the history of American sports, Henry Louis Gehrig was raised in the German immigrant neighborhood of Yorkville (upper East Side) and went to Columbia on a football scholarship. The New York Giants (baseball) manager convinced him to play on the diamond during his college years as well. His #4 jersey was the first in all sports to be retired in 1941.
Neither one of us graduated from Columbia (George Mason instead for me, and Gehrig was signed by the Yankees after just two years), but we both spent some great years there. New York was clearly the most diverse place I'd ever been fortunate enough to call an adopted home. After 11 years back East, I became quite a well-rounded sports fan, my concern for the community grew by leaps and bounds, and I developed from a relatively shy kid into someone who could talk (and listen) to people of all backgrounds about all topics, but especially baseball and football.
