Such was the apt and touching Hebrew proverb spoken by Doug Epstein, the 3rd generation owner of Horizon Beverage, to the hundreds in attendance at last night’s Massachusetts Restaurant Association’s “Making the Future Bright” Scholarship Awards Gala held at the Danversport Yacht Club. The Epstein family led numerous restaurants and foodservice companies in contributing $100,000 in scholarship opportunities for high school and college students preciously poised to become the next wave of hospitality lifeblood.
It was a beautiful night highlighted by enthusiastic yet poised and over-achieving youth, their proud parents and teachers, generosity and pride exhibited by so many invested contributors, humor and ceaseless, shameless promotion provided by celebrity master-promoter and MC Billy Costa, and plenty of ovations and praise heaped upon those who make it their business to so directly positively influence and guide others—such as MRA Director of Education Stacey Sawyer—those who take the lead as shining examples of what leadership is actually all about.
To quote MRA’s executive director Bob Luz as he beamed and presided over the evening; “We don’t simply seek managers—we seek leaders.”
With 15 years and now 36 participating Headstart schools, I’m confident our future is in great and talented hands!
PS A special ‘best wishes’ shout-out to both Lowell High School graduate, William Izarry—who, last week, became this year’s recipient of the Cobblestones Hospitality Scholarship award, and, to Whittier Tech graduate Darlene Del Orbe, who last night received The Stones Hospitality Scholarship. Coincidentally, both are bound for Johnson and Wales Culinary school in the fall. We are so happy for you both, and likewise, extremely grateful to our very own leaders and staff, whose commitment and efforts make such opportunities possible.
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