A life that impacted many

Last February, I had the opportunity to meet and interview a very special lady who inspired many Barry County students through a teaching career that spanned 40 years. I feel privileged that, even though I was not lucky enough to have her as a teacher, I was able to meet Glenda Ward before she passed away on Oct. 27.

Meeting Glenda had a profound impact on me. I was lucky enough to be there when she presented a special National Honor Society pendant to her niece, Natalie Ward, during a NHS anniversary celebration and induction ceremony at Cassville High School on Feb. 28.

During our interview, which I conducted prior to the special event, Glenda told me about CHS's first induction ceremony in 1958. She was one of the first students inducted into the newly chartered Clara Astra Chapter.

Although the senior students who were selected to be members of the Cassville NHS chapter were notified in advance, Glenda and several other students were not told that they would become probationary members of the organization.

"At the end of the senior induction they announced seven juniors and five sophomores who were called to be probationary members," Glenda said during the interview last year. "We were called out of the audience and when we turned around we saw that all of our parents were there."

I can still recall the excitement in Glenda's voice as she recounted the special day. A parent of one of the new inductees purchased NHS pendants for each of the new members, and over the next 50 years Glenda continue to proudly display her pendant on necklaces and bracelets.

It was quite an honor to be at the Cassville High School NHS anniversary celebration and capture the moment Glenda passed the pendant, which had been so special to her for so many years, onto Natalie.

"I decided that Natalie was a bright girl who would be inducted into NHS one day," Glenda told me before the assembly. "She is a super special gal who means a lot to me."

As I recall waiting for Natalie to emerge from the induction ceremony and receive her congratulatory gift, I remember how many people stopped to say hello to Glenda. You could tell that she had impacted many lives.

We should all aspire to have that type of impact on and love for both our family members and others in our community. I still feel honored that I was able to meet and learn from Glenda, not in a classroom, but from how she conducted herself in her daily life.