DEAR EDITOR:

“Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.” You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You only need a big heart.

I would like to encourage our youth and our younger generations, the Millennials and Gen Z’ers to step up and serve your community, whether it’s helping at the Banquet of Salem, mowing and trimming the hedges at church or helping a neighbor out — youth committing themselves to civic life and creating a more fair, more just and more peaceful world.

Devote yourself to the service of others, and you will find a satisfaction that rises above your troubles. The sports teams at Salem High School have been a good example of doing what they can to help neighbors out.

Leadership at its best is service to others. Each of us is responsible for our own behavior, for good as well as bad. Let’s make the positive choice. One single person can inspire others to act to change the world for the better.

If you want to go from good to great, you have to work at it. It depends on your own patience and persistence. Yes, you will face some challenges, but get up and keep moving forward. Leadership has its rewards.

BOB SHILLING

Salem