'You can, if you will'

I'm going to use another quote. This one is by Jerry Kramer, as told to him by one of his coaches at Sandpoint High early in his career. Jerry used it in his Hall of Fame acceptance speech. It's another one that will always be in my mind, as it is so very true.

"You can, if you will." That is so indicative of life. We have gone through a very rough stretch here in Priest River with our school district. It's far from over, but step one has been accomplished. We banded together with a huge job in front of us. We worked together regardless of our different beliefs. Our common belief was that we had to do a job together for the benefit of public education, our young folks (students), and our community.

We have been the subject of mean and sometimes vile comments about how we're not very smart in our neck of the woods. How our students are not the sharpest tacks in the shed, yet so many of our citizens are graduates of PRLHS who have become staples in our city. Business owners, educators, common laborers, mill owners, mill foremen, loggers, log operation owners, truckers, and more. The list goes on and on. And we are proud of every one of them.

These not-so-smart people banded together using their well-educated brains to accomplish something that had never been done in our area before. "You can, if you will."

We could, if we would, and we did.

ERNIE SCHOEFFEL

Priest River