A very incomplete obituary
Within his obituary, it mentions Rev. Sale's 60 years of service to the local church, his community, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Within that long descriptive paragraph, there is the mention that Rev. Sale "was a member of the Kiwanis Club." Kiwanis, as you may know, is one of our country's historic community service organizations born during World War I when suburbs were being created and service organizations jumped up to improve the quality of life in small, growing communities. Kiwanis was an all-male organization comprised of community leaders.
Once upon a time, in the Spring of 1974, I was a freshman in high school. I was shy, awkward, and searching - grasping, actually - for an identity which could not be found in athletics, academics, or music. I was invisible. Our family, though close-knit, loving and fun, was also going through a lot of changes during that season, including a looming national economic recession. It was a time of personal uncertainty and confusion.
An older high school friend invited me to join our high school's Key Club, the high school club sponsored by Kiwanis. Key Club, at the time also all-male, was created to involve teenage boys in leadership development and community service. My friend Steve Taylor and I joined our high school's Key Club that Spring and were invited to the year-end club banquet hosted by the local Kiwanis Club.
The banquet speaker was Rev. Richard Sale.
Rev. Sale was serving as Georgia's state Key Club administrator - the statewide numero uno adult sponsor for Georgia's Key Club organization. His recent obituary short-sightedly reports he was a member of the Kiwanis Club. No, he was much, much more than that. In his state Kiwanis role attached to Georgia Key Club, he influenced thousands of high school boys - including this one.
At that banquet, I soaked up Rev. Sale's every word. At the close, he invited us to join Key Club members from all over Georgia on a summer bus tour to the Key Club International convention in Houston. Despite having never really been more than 60 miles from home and given to homesickness, I signed on to attend that trip. The local Kiwanis Club paid my way. I was 14.
For the 10 days of that summer trip, I was immersed in an organization that taught me about leadership, poise, and service to mankind. When that bus returned to Atlanta, I had friends all over Atlanta and Georgia. I'm Facebook friends with some of them today. Each day on the bus, Rev. Sale took time to speak to us, opening our minds to self-confidence, encouraging us to be bold, to step up and serve, and to love others. He taught us about camaraderie. Because we had to wear ties and jackets all week, he taught me and a few others how to tie a Windsor knot. Every day we had to look him in the eye and shake his hand as we boarded the bus, and he critiqued each handshake - "it must be firm or not at all."
I came home with my identity and a new confidence; three years later I was elected Georgia's Key Club governor, following a year as one of 18 statewide lieutenant governors. By the time I was elected the state's governor, Rev. Sale had moved on from Key Club. Another man stepped into that role - a man whose family also impacted my life beyond measure.
About three years ago, I just happened to see where a man named Richard Sale was serving in South Carolina Baptist chaplaincy ministry. Through my state Baptist contacts I got a mobile telephone number and called it. It was Rev. Sale. I was able to tell him that though my life only briefly crossed with his, there was no doubt that God placed him there and that he changed the trajectory of my life forever.
You will read more about Rev. Sale and other heroes of my high school years in my 2018 book, Hickory Trail. It's due out October 2018.
www.scottdvaughan.com
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