Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Are you sitting at home thinking how can I actually affect change? You may be surprised to learn that there is a program in our area that is already doing it. Between our two towns (Gloucester and Mathews) 34 percent of kids, on average, who graduate from high school go on to attend a four-year university. Mobjack Rowing Association, the rowing club that comprises our towns’ two high schools, boasts a 90 percent four-year college attendance rate. Of the remaining 10 percent, about half of those kids attended a two-year college and a quarter joined the military.

But wait! It gets better! The dollar figure for Mobjack scholarship money is a multi-million dollar figure. I want to make sure you read that correctly. Multi-million. The club boasts attendance at schools like Dartmouth, Rutgers, UVA, Florida Institute of Technology, Duke, The United States Naval Academy, University of Rhode Island, University of Pennsylvania, Bucknell, Tulsa, Northeastern, Miam...