So, I’m going to deviate from talking about printing and graphics for a moment, because I’ve just taken a miracle journey into modern medicine. I say this now, being able to walk around without the chronic pain I’ve dealt with for years, only 3 weeks into a journey of invasive back surgery at Miami Valley on November 23. That is shaping up to be a true miracle in my mind.

I’ll start by saying a lot of people around me never knew I had back problems, I was just able to either keep them to myself or just mask them. I’ve spent years trying out alternative interventions like physical therapy and spinal injections. But once I decided on the surgery option, the worst part of this was seeing the pins & screws they put in my back … I think they could hold a muffler on an old Chevy Caprice. But when I was on vacation this past summer, I was unable to walk more than a block or stand more than 10 minutes, so I knew I had to do something.

Now they have special names for this type of surgery, and the names sound as intimidating as the procedure really is. Essentially what happens is they fuse your back together with these pins and screws…and then after the operation, there’s a point where the pain level is very high, so they put a little green button in your hand that lights up every 15 minutes…you push it and the morphine takes you away. That and my iPod turned up loud while laying on my back is what really pulled me through, although I did get in trouble for trying to push the button to many times.

This is really a success story on two major levels, First, a lot of amazing people all around me, some I never knew prior to this, were just unbelievably kind and caring.And the doctors, starting with Dr. Hodges at Dayton Spine and Rehab were absolute professionals. The surgeon, Dr. Amongero, in my mind is incredibly gifted and preformed a miracle on me. The staff at Miami Valley Hospital was just unbelievable. The nurses who tolerated me (Misty is the one I remember) brought me back to life for the 3 days after surgery and were truly caring people (and I mean that…there was not an impatient bone in any of their bodies). My opinion and respect for Miami Valley Hospital and all the Doctors and Nurses associated with them is at the highest level. I have nothing bad to say about our health care system.

The second part of the success story is all the people I work with, employees of Oregon, customers and everybody else who works with us. I owe everybody a “Big Thanks”. I know the staff have been busy working overtime at the shop,  and I’ve gotten cards, gift baskets and a lot of visitors; it’s funny how the world just seems to keep rolling when you step out with something like this. I normally don’t write stuff like this about myself, but this was a huge event in my life, and I just can’t say enough about all of the support I have gotten.

I can’t wait to get back (hopefully later this week), as we have huge plans for Oregon over the next couple of years. The industry is at such a huge crossroads, communications have become a lot more personal, the US Postal Service is at a huge crossroads, new digital equipment is changing the game every day, and in some cases, printing is crossing the line and becoming interactive. The winner is the customer who wants new and better ways to communicate their message. And on top of all this printing and communications, I want to be in canoeing shape come springtime. I’m starting on my 4th week of recovery now and looking forward to every day of the rest of my life.

When we were deciding what to do for Christmas, the idea of looking back on all that we had done for others over the past year kept coming up. But how do you tell about it without sounding a little bit to much like “Look what I did.” I am truly proud of all of our contributions to the community and the  people within our community, so I decided, let’s talk about it anyway and see where it goes.

One quick note about this community we live in: There are so many good people in Dayton and the surrounding region that will give a helping hand without blinking when asked, I am truly amazed.

When a colleague of mine, Joe Ryan (of Reliable Electric) called this past summer asking if we could help support an event close to him called the Kathy Alianiello Memorial Run, and that not only was the run to support ovarian cancer research, but to also honor their close friend that had died in January, what could I say. We helped support the 10K run (through historic Lebanon) by printing their entry forms, flyers, posters and letters. And it felt good to help Joe out with this cause he had undertaken.

So we reflected more on last year, and started to wonder whether we had made a difference in our community. We do, and give, a lot, but being ourselves, we generally don’t think to much in terms of “making a difference.” We just help where we can and go on about our business. But looking back, I think we did make a difference and that’s what we are all proud of. Taking this time to reflect back on some of the areas we felt like we did make a difference, if you have a few minutes, click over on some of the organizations and charities to learn more or help make your difference in the community.

• WYSO 91.3 FM, Public Radio. WYSO, a member supported Radio Station that brings Public Radio to the Dayton/Springfield area and I believe we are all a better community for it. We support WYSO through underwriting and making sure their printing, mailing and related services are done right. I go on the air once or twice a year with Jon or Nick and help raise money during their donation drives. Not only does it support public radio in Dayton, but it gives us an opportunity to connect with a lot of their listeners as well as supporters, and in our minds is the right thing to do.
• If you have not checked out Dayton History at Carillon Park lately, you should. Dayton History is remarkable organization, and our community is extremely fortunate to have a group like them to tell the story of Dayton’s remarkable history. We are proud supporters of Dayton History, and on a personal level, I always look forward to attending the Heritage festival, the Philharmonic concert and Ringing in the Holidays, all at Carillon Park among all the other events they hold.
• For the second year, we have been proud supporters of the 5K “No Butts about it” run for Colon Cancer, which provides not only support for cancer research, but brings awareness to the need for screening.
• There are organizations like United Way  of Greater Dayton, who we help out by donating all the press time to producing their annual reports and leadership books. And the Miami Valley Hospital Foundation, where we donated the invitation set for the Gala Celebration of the new Hospital Tower.
• And there are so many others we discount all we can afford to, or we donate time and help out however we can: Hanna’s Treasure Chest, The Opera Guild of Dayton, Ronald McDonald House, The Dayton Food Bank, Culture Mash, Culture Works and the list goes on.

After reflecting on our year at Oregon, I went around to the staff and asked: what do you do personally to give back?

• Mike volunteers at his Church and kid’s school;
• Kim does a lot of volunteer time with Agape for Youth, For the Love of Children, Go Red for Women and Second Chance Rescue;
• Bob’s family quit giving Christmas presents, and instead everybody puts their Christmas money in a kitty and give it to a charity (Ronald McDonald house, Alzheimer’s organization); and
• Laurie’s family adopts a family at Christmas.
• Anita has made a personal commitment to the Salvation Army (they helped her family as a child).

I don’t think we are that much different from a lot of other small businesses and groups out there. We do what we can to help out, sometimes we do more than we can. And that’s what makes Dayton as well as this country a great place. And I guess being the holiday season, it’s a good time to say thanks to everybody that is willing to make a difference, and I’m thankful that we are in a position to be able to give back.