A boy and a girl. And 48 years later.  

Talk about impacts. After all, this is our annual “Impact” issue where our leading and often unsung nonprofit leaders get put under our brightest spotlight. And the general theme of greatest impact reverberates through most of the stories in our COMO Magazine and COMO Business Times editions.  

For me, personally, the greatest, longest lasting impact has roots in the Maries County R-2 junior high school (today’s kids call it “middle school”) in Belle, Missouri, and economics class. One day in November 1976, the teacher was droning on about supply and demand, trade deficits, gross national products, and other silly things like that. But I had bigger issues in my mind. And in my eighth grade heart. As best I can recall, I’d recently “broken up” with a longtime girlfriend (dating back to sixth grade), and I was forlorn.  

My best buddy, Kenny, said, “I bet I can find you a girlfriend,” and he left the area where our desks were aligned in a way that basically prevented us from hearing and learning. Lo these many eons later, I rue those days if only because it would have been beneficial to learn about economics.   

The bright side of the distraction is that Kenny returned to his seat next to mine and announced, “You’re ‘going with’ Kelly.” After a brief pause, I glanced toward a cluster of girls and caught her eye. I nodded. She — and I’m (probably) not making this up — rolled her eyes and shrugged, without really making eye contact. Moments later (and it’s going to sound like no one paid attention to the teacher, ever, which was probably true of that class), I sauntered over to Kelly, who was as tall as me when we were seated. But she was just a shade under six-feet-tall; I was maybe five-foot-four.  

I was on the eighth grade basketball team. She was a cheerleader. There was a game that night at Chamois. I knew she was going; she knew I was going. (Obviously.)   

Me: “So, I guess we’re ‘going together.’”  

Her: Rolls her eyes. Shrugs. “I guess so.” No eye contact.  

Me: “Want to sit together on the bus on the way to the game tonight?”  

Her: Shrugs. Rolls her eyes. Still no eye contact. “I guess.”  

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what happened forty-eight years ago on Monday, November 22, 1976, in Mrs. Gerhardt’s eighth grade economics class. A mere 2,021 days later, after my freshman year in college, we were married. (June 5, 1982.) My bride, Kelly, is the most significant earthly impact in my life, thanks to her grace and the grace of our Father.  

Now I present the COMO Magazine and COMO Business Times “Impact” issue, complete with the winners and honorees of our Impact COMO Awards. Be sure to pat these amazing humans on the back and let all of our nonprofit volunteers, staffers, leaders, and organizations know how much they mean to us.