July 13 2014 Update on Ruritan National President Elliott Hogge posted on “I am Ruritan” Facebook Page

Taken from the “I am Ruritan” Facebook Page, originally posted by Sandra Hogge on July 13, 2014 approximately 8:42am:

Thank you all for your continuing prayers and outreach to us. Every single day a card, a phone call, or a visitor has arrived to show Elliott some love! Elliott has made a remarkable physical recovery in the last 7 weeks. He still has three sessions a week with a speech therapist, and he is doing his speech “homework” as well. He is working very hard! Sometimes I get tired just watching. The stroke caused two speech-related conditions: aphasia and apraxia of speech. His intellect is intact, he can read, he can do math, and his thought processes are fine, but the problem is the spoken word, in that he sometimes has difficulty saying the word he wants to say. He is still early in the healing process, so please continue to pray for his complete recovery.

Recap of 2014 Summer Leadership Conference by President Elect Bobby Burton

Posted on “I AM Ruritan” Facebook page on 6/21/14 by Ruritan National’s President Elect Bobby Burton

LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE encourages us to WALK THE WALK for RURITAN . . . .

The 2014 Ruritan Leadership Conference concluded Saturday morning after two days of informative information for the approximately 90 Ruritan leaders in attendance. The events started with an open house/reception at the Home Office on Thursday afternoon.

The Conference was opened on Friday morning with a special greeting from President Elliott and First Lady Sandra read by Mike Chrisley. A picture of them was projected on the screen – they were wearing their conference t-shirts – and it was great to see their smiling faces!

A patriotic theme was carried out at the Conference with an emphasis on honoring Veterans and everyone was encouraged to Revitalize, Get Excited, and WALK THE WALK for Ruritan.

 

 

Speakers for the conference included Julie Hopkins from Smithfield, VA., the 2013 Top Recruiter, who gave a fun and excited talk on how to recruit new members. Jon Hatfield, Executive Director of the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, VA. spoke on Friday about the War Memorial, Veterans, and Ruritan. Jon had recently returned from a trip to Normandy for the D-Day 70th Anniversary.

On Saturday morning, we heard from April Cheek-Messier, President of the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA. She gave interesting facts about the D-Day Memorial and she also talked about the recent D-Day 70th Anniversary and how they celebrated in Bedford. There were events for the Veterans at the memorial and a parade through downtown Bedford.

All three of our speakers, Julie, Jon, and April, are Ruritan members and we were privileged to have them participate in the Conference. Everyone enjoyed a picnic on Friday night at Randolph Park, provided by the Pioneer Ruritan Club, and music by a local band, Buck Nelson.

My hope for the conference is that everyone had a good time and that you learned at least one new thing from the information we offered. As I said in my opening remarks, “there is always something new to learn about Ruritan”. And no matter if we are a past, current, or future leaders, we need to keep up on the changes occurring in Ruritan. Giving out the wrong information is a sure way to injure our organization.

Thank you to Perry Marshman, Lorene Reece, and Sarah Kelly (Leadership Committee members) AND to the Home Office Staff. This Conference would not have been a success without their hard work in putting it together. Thanks to all the workshop presenters, the Growth, Development and Retention Committee, the Youth Committee, the Publicity and Public Relations Committee, and the Ruritan National Foundation for their part on the program.

Keep up the good work in your communities and Thank You for all you do for Ruritan.

Yours in Ruritan,
President Elect Bobby

Update on President Elliott Hogge from the Summer Leadership Conference

Original Post on “I AM Ruritan” Facebook page by Linda Burton

Summer Leadership Conference began this morning with a special message from President Elliott and First Lady Sandra being read by Mike Chrisley. It was a great way to start the Conference by seeing their smiling faces and know that they are doing well. President Elliott went home yesterday less than one month after his stroke. Keep the prayers gong for continued improvement for him.

Progress report on President Elliott Hogge posted on Facebook

Original post by Sandra Hogge‎ on the “I am Ruritan” Facebook page dated 6/11/2014

13 hrs · 

Today Elliott completed day 7 of his first week of rehab. He is looking good! Today he sported his “still plays with tractors T shirt” but tomorrow he will be back to wearing one of his Ruritan polos, now that I have done the laundry! One of the speech therapists commented that she thought her father in law would enjoy being in a Ruritan Club. Just goes to show that wearing your Ruritan clothes no matter where you are opens the door to discussing what we are all about.