May 3, 2016
Written by: Neil Kiekhofer, 2015 P5 Award Winner
When I received the P5 award I felt incredibly humbled. To a certain extent, I still cannot believe that I won. I looked at the other recipients, and I just thought, how cool are the people in this room? To be surrounded by people who shared the same vision for our community was inspiring. To be surrounded by the people who nominated and recommended me for the award was heartwarming. To be surrounded by my family and friends made me feel surrounded by love and support. I was choked up, literally.
As the year progressed, I continued to receive accolades from people in the community, which served as my motivation to keep working. I am truly blessed to have such a great group of people that I can call my community. P5 was a honor.
When I first received the award, I felt incredibly energized - but I also felt insufficient. I felt that I should be inspiring everyone around me all the time to do everything they could to change everything all at once. I kept volunteering my time and my talents to help my community. I tried to do this as frequently as time allowed; but I didn’t feel like it was enough. Then reality hit; I stumbled and realized my initial plans were a little too grand. I thought back to why I won the award in the first place. I reflected on what I am good at. My strength in helping others lies in my ability to develop relationships.
The whole experience of P5 has help me realize that trying to do everything by yourself is not the best way to succeed. No one person can change things on their own. Instead, the best way that I can succeed is by working with others. I believe that I can further the mission of P5 by helping to foster and encourage the next generation of people to effect change.
For example, one thing that made the receiving of this award very special was the opportunity for my daughters to see me receive it. Isabelle and Daisy are eleven (twins) and have been volunteering since they were eight years old. My goal of inspiring the next generation starts with them. In our family, we believe that it is our responsibility, as world citizens, to give back. They use what they are already good at to build a better world.
I try to inspire others around me, as well. At Front Room, the business where I am the co-owner, I look to inspire the office by encouraging my staff do do what I do - find that which they feel they are the best at, and use it to make a difference. To help them do this, I encourage each person to find a United Way partner to give back to each year. We make sure that they have a paid day of wage each year so that the staff can explore and make their own positive mark on our community by volunteering with a United Way partner.
A great side benefit for me was that I got to meet four dynamic souls - the other 2015 P5 Award Winners. I have run into them at events and even at the movie theater. There is always a warm hug and smile to go along and a thought of what is next? A call from fellow P5 Winner Rachel Hughes lead and inspired me to my next step. She proposed a partnership for her next project and Front Room was honored to donate services to the next WGirls event. We are doing what we are best at to help them do what they are best at. The only way that we can truly improve our community is by acting as a community in order to be the change we want to see in the world.
This experience has helped me realize that the best way to improve our community is to be part of a community that wants to effect change. We are more together than we are as a sum of individuals.