During this past year, the Board of the National Exchange Club revised our mission statement so that it now reads Exchange, inspiring communities to become better places to live.

While that is something that we have always done throughout our 100+ year history, it's always good to reflect on the mission and vision occasionally to keep it fresh and relevant.

Our club has been active in the community service business now for going on 70 years - and that doesn't look to change any time soon. Even our fund-raising activities are community service projects. Gus Macker has been our mainstay fundraiser for a quarter of a century now, but think about what it does for the community - thousands of family and friends come to Quincy annually for the Memorial Day weekend, many from out of town. That brings the hotels and restaurants a great deal of business.

While we are new to the Avenue of Lights, it has become a community fixture with tens of thousands of people driving through Wavering and Moorman parks each Christmas season to see the beautiful displays.

Taking the funds that we raise from those events, we're able to carry out other projects that serve the community as a whole - The Book of Golden Deeds, Adopt-a-Grandparent, Firefighter and Law Enforcement Officer of the Year, just to name a few. It also allows us to provide funding to other organizations in ways that help make our community a better place to live.

Our motto is Unity for Service  - words to live by when President Haugh comes asking for help!