Like millions of Americans today, I can recall that tragic day as if it were only yesterday despite the 2,555 days that have past since that fateful nightmare of a day. I was awakened by my business partner Bobby Jones and witness the horror unfolding on my hotel television screen with disbelief and commenting “this is my generations Pearl Harbor”. First thinking some plane accidentally collided into my recent office located on the 85^th Floor of Two World Trade Center in New York City. It was only a few months before Bobby and I were meeting in my office conference room looking down at the Statue of Liberty from above, watching planes below us circling in flight like small birds and both of us being amazed at the beauty around us in these magnificent towers in the sky.

The evening before, we had flown into Indianapolis for our September 11th meeting with Sam Odle, FACHE, COO (now CEO), Methodist Medical Center, University of Indiana Hospitals/Clarian Health www.clarian.org. When we arrive at the medical center it was in a busy fury of activities implementing various security precautions given the uncertainty of the day and other possible unknown threats. Having been a former hospital CEO, I had practiced these as emergency drills many times of the decades. I still vividly recall the faces of the people I encounter if not glued to an available television were very serious attending to their business.  It was remarkable to watch each member of the medical center staff, the security guard, physicians, nurses, the receptionist, the hospital administrator all in some temporary collective form of shock, yet all very diligently focused on getting their important work done. Bobby and I met with Sam that morning; we conducted no business, closed no deal; only shared our personal thoughts and concerns for those directly impacted. It was a national day of mourning and respect.

It was less than two months earlier I had left my position as managing partner at a healthcare consulting firm located in the Two World Trade Center in New York City. I had live many months in the Millennium Hilton hotel across from the WTC and ventured early each morning through tight security and two separate elevators to reach the 85^th floor were my office was located. It was indeed a bustling “city within a city” with its own police force, corporate offices, banks, grocery stores, restaurants, subway system, and an underground mall. To this day, I am not sure if it was fate, serendipity, kismet, karma or Divine Providence that lured me away from that position and landed me at a medical center in Indianapolis, Indiana on that day.  We were “stranded” in the beautiful Midwest with all air flights cancelled nation wide for the foreseeable future. Bobby lived in Arizona and he was anxious to see his wife and I desperately wanted to see my two young children in Louisiana. We keep our “day” rental car, watched gas prices literally increase dramatically each fill-up, saw state trooper inspect us as we journey each state and drove across the country the next few days experiencing America’s heartland and witnessing people coming together to mourn the loss of life and America’s innocence. We saw hundreds of airplanes grounded at airports along our unplanned route. When Bobby and I parted our ways along the road West and I finally was able to see, kiss and hugged my kids closely again.

Exactly one year after the tragedy on 9-11-02, I flew from a nearly empty Newark International Airport after participating in a truly inspirational September 11th memorial service at a medical center in New Jersey where the hospital community of patients, family, administrators, physicians, nurses, clerks and cooks, came together for a brief few moments of silence to remember those that had perished and promised to “never forget” and pledging to the future by planting a seedling tree for generations to come to witness how deep our American roots are and how high our branches can reach the skies, and despite the many falling heroes, loss thousands of precious lives and crumbled buildings, our human spirit grows stronger.

So as with every 911, I will remember where I was, who I was with, what horror I witnessed, what wonderful community I experienced, what I remembered of my friends and colleagues on the 85^th floor of WTC-Two and thankful for our many blessings and the American spirit. As always each year, I will take a moment of silence, look at my WTC security card that I keep in my wallet and call my “brother” Bobby, and together we share a moment of remembrance.

Take Care,

Michael

The two major political parties in the United States just completed two weeks of national televised conventions to nominated and elect their Presidential national tickets for the November 4, 2008 election. The other political parties conventions for the America’s Independent, Libertarian, Green,  Constitution  parties were held during the summer and their Presidential candidates and web sites are presented below.

The Democratic Convention was held August 25-28 in Denver, Colorado with expected election of first term United States Senator Barak Obama (D-IL) as President and six term United States Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) as Vice President.

The Republican Convention was held September 1-4 in Minneapolis, MN with expected election of three term United States Senator John McCain (R-AZ) as President and first term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R-AZ) as Vice President.

HealthDecision ‘08 was created by www.healthcare.comto provide a “side-by-side” comparison of the Democratic and Republican health plans they are proposing to implement if they are successful in being elected to The White House in November 2008.

“HealthDecision ’08by HealthCare.com is an initiative to inform, educate and deploy the power of the web to gather public opinion on the health care proposals put forth by Barack Obama and John McCain. HealthDecision ’08provides a side-by-side comparison of Obama’s and McCain’s healthcare positions and proposals, along with interactive voting tools that enable users to vote for their preferred health care plan and offer their own comments after weighing through the issues.” www.healthcare.com

So far several hundred visitors have made their vote count by selecting the health policy they like the best from the Obama and McCain campaigns. Join in the voting and the health policy “conversation” by commenting on this important issue facing our nation. Check out the other leading Presidential candidates as well as you make an informed decision.

Don’t forget to vote for the 2008 Presidential candidateof your choice on November 4, 2008.(links to websites by clicking on photos of Presidential candidates Keyes, Barr, Obama, McKinney, McCain & Nader)

 Take Care,

Michael

www.execimpactgroup.com

Take care,

Michael

www.execimpactgroup.com

Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya, MD are up to it again. They recently launched a wiki “Health Accelerator 2.0“ which was inspired by Dr. Marty Tenenbaum’s and his  comments during 2007 Health 2.0 conference held in San Francisco (and San Diego Health 2.0)which I watched & listen too last September. Here are some details about their latest innovation:

“For several months there has been discussion amongst Health 2.0 companies
about the concept of a Health 2.0 Accelerator. It started with Marty
Tenenbaum’s introduction of the concept in September 2007. It continued with
the discussion at the San Diego meeting in March 2008. Since then
conversations and meetings among a small group have continued to define a
first cut at what the Health 2.0 Accelerator should be.The basic idea is for organizations to collaborate to create “public goods”

– frameworks and strategies that will help all concerned to advance the
industry. The way to do this is via projects that tackle particular
problems, and leave behind frameworks and utilities that all can use. The reality is of course going to be more complex, but we’re delighted to
announce that the first project concerning moving pharmaceutical data has
been announced, and the first principles and statements about the future of
the Accelerator are now up at its own wiki at Health2Accelerator.org
http://www.health2accelerator.org/

The initial H2A project will be “Drug Profile Interoperability” given several of the founding members.  The goal is “Consumers, providers, physicians, pharmacists and payers may evaluate current and prospective drug regimen treatments on cost and safety concerns.”

The question is an “independent group” such as Health 2.0 Accelerator too dependent on specific vendors (their concepts, propriety solutions, financial resources, expectations) provided in the charter membership establish a framework that in contrary to their mission. Time will tell, it would be my guess that a wider cross section of industry vendors ensures greater input, creativity and innovations versus being bound by one specific vendors “proprietary solution” or “proprietary business model” that may limit the group’s options.

I joined this group today and encourage others do the same that operate in the Health 2.0 world. It should be interesting to watch this group tackle various technical, programming and social networking issues among many others in the next phase of Health 2.0 in the years ahead.

Take care,

Michael

www.execimpactgroup.com

As America celebrates its 232 birthday, I wanted to wish all my family, friends and fellow Americans a very Healthy and Happy Fourth of July. These pictures show America’s Declaration of Independence and fireworks in Washington, DC; New York City and San Francisco.

As a native Washingtonian, I grew up in the Nation’s Capital often watching the fireworks displays with tremedous awe at The Mall while sitting on blankets with my parents, six siblings and friends. They are treasured memories of the simpler time.

In 2001, I was living in New York City and with my offices on the 85th floor of Two The World Trade Center I had a great view of the Statue of Liberty below. That July 4th, I joined a few hundred thousand folks and watched the Macy’s fireworks near the United Nations building as fireworks lit up the East River. It was an amazing experience.

During my life I have lived, worked and celebrated our country’s birthday in many ways in 11 states including; at neighborhood parades in Maryland; at Wolf Trap for the Performing Arts Park in Virginia; on a bayou picnic in Louisiana; on the Atlantic Ocean in Florida; on a board walk in Delaware; and near the Golden Gate Bridge in California. It is truly a magical spectacular display of people gathering as one united voice regardless of hertitage, gender, race, religion, economic status and celebrating our night sky’s pyrotechnic displays with a collective “ooohhh! ahhhhh!” and always smiling with happiness.

As Americans celebrate our Declaration of Independence Day in 2008, I wanted to wish you a Happy 4th and I am thankful to live in a country that feeds the diverse human spirit to pursue “Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness”.

 Take Care & Be Healthy,

Michael

wwww.execimpactgroup.com

However, the type of “Medical Mentoring” I am referring to is the kind which would be similar to a financial advisor people engage for effectively planning and managing their financial needs.  The world of medicine despite the multiple direct to consumer television drug advertisements is an often even more mysterious and confusing then the financial world. People are seeking domain medical expertise in advising them in a full range of medicial decision making from clinical treatments to evaluating assisted living facilities for themselves or their parents.

“Mentor is the name of the person to whom Odysseus (a.k.a. Ulysses) entrusted the care of his son, Telemachus, when he set out on those famous wanderings of his that we now call an “odyssey” and which took him, among other places, to the Trojan Wars. Mentor was Odysseus’ wise and trusted counselor.”

To many patients and families, trying to navigate our US healthcare systems has indeed become an “Odyssey” full of various “wars” with providers, insurers and “the system” of red tape. Before managed care, reduced reimbursements, medical practice specialization and time constraints on physicians our “family doctor” was our “Medical Mentor”  of “Patient Advocate” in the past, but that role as all but disappear much like the housecall.

Medical Mentoring may just become a new college study major for college student entering undergraduate programs, one that would be multi-year study, training and internships and offer a professional degree and professional “certification” not unlike a CPA or CFP.  As the field of study expands, increase specialization would be a natural progression with individual medical mentors focusing areas such as preventive health, fitness & diet or medical treatments, or even managing the “medical maze” of providers and facilities. My friend Marjorie Alfus former general cousel at KMart and Chair at The Center for Women’s Business Research has been leading advocate for creating a solution for families struggling with medical maze issue, while pioneering educational support to train future “medical mentors”.

In some cases physicians are choosing to convert their private practices from a traditional insurance reimbursement model into a “medical concierge” model and are limiting their patient panel numbers and requiring cash only.  I would not be surprise if nurse practictioners, physician assistants and in some cases physicians pursue a medical mentor role as this trend emerges and grows in the–it seems that the past is prologue.

Take care,

Michael

www.execimpactgroup.com

As many who know me, I have been building connections in social networks both “off line” and online for 40+ years. The old networks are from my childhood friends who I continue to be in contact usually on a daily basis (via e-mail) and in person a few times a year. I have developed at least 20 different and distinct networks ranging from friends, family, grade school, high school, college, graduate school, internships, professional associations, employers, etc. Facebook, Linked In…

I have always enjoy connecting with people across the street or around the global since a very early age. It is a passion of mine. So I stay connected on a daily basis with many people mostly about common interests, hobbies, technology, online solutions, healthcare, medicine, social networking and charities. What I have noticed in the past 3-4 years is not only the proliferation of general and topic specific social networking sites (listed below) that have “members” into the multi-millions, but “niche” health, medical and wellness social networking sites that may only have a few hundred or thousands of members. Media reports on this growing trend with zest in Business Week “Health Social Networking“, Mashable and other publications. Both models seem to work for their respective audiences one is focused on the “masses” to create huge media sites much like a major network television station, and the latter to serve very specific disease, health or medical issues someone would like to talk to others who have similar experiences. Perhaps the old adage “Birds of a feather, flock together” has deep roots into our global human condition to reach out and discover/communicate with others regardless of where they live and to share a common interest.

Back in late 1990s, I was an alpha investor and founder of eHealth, which became HealthOnline.com a venture capital backed company providing many of the “innovations” and “tools” incorporated in the emerging healthcare social networking sites below including: online health communities; disease specific message boards; professional and clinical support; health experts; and instant messaging. It is a bit gratifying to see such tools as common place on most of these sites now. The technology has advance tremendously and that benefits the users, patients, providers or others with the need to interact about specific health, medical or wellness issues.

Some of the emerging “health” networking site include:

Trusera Founded by Keith Schorsch a former Amazon.com executive is based in Seattle. “Trusera is a new social-networking website centered on health,  The site, which features online communities and personalized health information, allows members to endorse one another’s contributions, as a way to identify reliable sources of information.”

Keas. Founded by Adam Bosworth, formerly VP of Google Health is launching this new site with a goal to “Dedicated to helping people stay as healthy as possible”. They are building a world class Advisory Board including Salesforce.com founder/CEO Marc Benioff, Esther Dyson of EDventure, former FDA Commissioner, David Kessler, MD and bringing together many talented professionals, one to watch.

Sermo Founder & CEO  Daniel Palestrant, MD presented at the Healthcare 2.0 conference last September  2007 in San Francisco. Phyisicans social networking to discussion about diseases. “We are a practicing community of 65,000 physicians who exchange clinical insights, observations, and review cases in real time — all the time.” according to their site.

Medical Mingle. “Is the professional social networking site for people working in, servicing and studying for a career in the healthcare and medical fields.” It is like “Facebook meets/mashes with AMA”.

Daily Stength. Considered a “pioneer” in healthcare social networking. by founders Doug, Josh and Lars. The site has over 600 “communities”, with members, chat, blogs, 24/7/365 support groups, 300 treatment issues discussed, and medical news.

Wellsphere. Capitalizing on the growing personal and corporate focus on creating health life styles at home and at work, Ron Gutman and Dave Kashen founded the company help people improve their well being. “Wellsphere builds online healthy living communities that help people ‘Get active, Eat better and Unwind’.

HealthWorldWeb.com. Founded by CEO Daniel Kogan and Dr. Asya Kogan in 2006, “Health World Web is a Social Network Of Patient Communities, offering Help, Emotional Support, Non-Medical Advice…Health World Web is a social networking tool that allows you to take charge of your health. At Health World Web you can blog, chat and post to forums about your healthcare needs.”

WebTribes.  Founded by Ryan and Kristin FitzGerald in 2006. “Currently they have 25,000 members across the 5 tribes. WebTribes focuses on life consuming ailments where studies show that isolation can be a detriment to a person’s health, while journaling and sharing experience with others can have very positive effects.”

RealMentalHealth.com This mission “Find and Meet people that are dealing with similar conditions by joining the first Mental Health Social Networking Community”. They list Groups, chats, forums, journals, etc. Interesting approach. My wife Dr. Hagit Glickman founded MyPysch.com which served the mental health professional community in a smiliar way back in 1997 and was a cover story feature in Inc magazine.

 The study of social networking  has been advanced by many including Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Director of Complex Network Research at University of Notre Dame. He wrote “Linked” which is a book full on excellent research and insights into the networking topic. Unless you have been in a deep coma the past five years you must have come across some of the leading “social networking” web site promoted by radio, television and online media socurces that initially were driven by teenage and college students, but has witness an increasing mainstream accpetance and use. Here are a few familiar ones.

MySpace.com: 191 million members. This site is massive, boasting the largest membership of any social networking site on the Internet.

Facebook.com: Was initially intended for college students — it branched out, and now allows everyone membership. 70 million members. http://blog.patientslikeme.com/

Linkedin.com: 20 million members — a powerful tool for business networking.

Friendster.com: 29 million members. Friendster was considered the top online social networking service until around April 2004, when it was overtaken by MySpace. Demographic studies indicate users are from 17 to 30 years old.

Stumbleupon.com: Boasting 2.75 million users, StumbleUpon is a web browser plugin that allows its users to discover and rate webpages, photos, videos, and news articles. A great way to get website promotion. Bought by eBay for $75 million in May 2007.

Orkut.com: Orkut is an Internet social networking service run by Google and named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten. It claims to be designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. Now has a membership of 57 million.

Twitter.com: A free social networking service that allows users to send “updates” (text-based posts that are up to 140 characters long) via SMS, instant messaging, email, the Twitter website, or an application such as Twitterrific.

Classmates.com: 40 million members. One of the oldest social networking sites around, Classmates was kicked off in 1995, and has proven to be a great way for members to to connect with old friends and acquaintances from throughout their lives.

Meetup.com: 2 million members. Meetup.com is an online social networking portal that facilitates offline group meetings in various localities around the world. Meetup allows members to find and join groups unified by a common interest, such as politics, books, games, movies, health, pets, careers or hobbies.

Yahoo! 360° (a.k.a Yahoo! Days) is a personal communication portal similar to orkut  and MySpace — it is currently in the beta-testing phase. It integrates features of social networking, blogging and photo sharing sites.

Xanga.com: 40 million members. Xanga is a free Web-based service that hosts weblogs, photoblogs, videoblogs, audioblogs, and social networking profiles.

Care2.com: 7.2 million members. Care2 is a social networking  website that was founded to help connect activists from around the world.

Ryze.com: .25 million members. Ryze.com is a free social networking website designed to link business professionals.

Recently, several major internet players including MicroSoft (www.healthvault.com now in Beta), Google (www.google.com/health in beta too)

Take Care,

Michael

www.execimpactgroup.com

www.linkedin.com/in/mikeryan

In a few days is Father’s Day and I thought I would take some time to honor my Dad, John L. “Jack” Ryan. He is a recognized pioneer in many aspects of the modern healthcare industry. His accomplishments included numerous hospitals designs, healthcare innovations and cutting edge medical technology decades ahead of their times. He lead the healthcare planning team for the two largest public projects in the Republic of China (ROC) in the 1980s including The National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei and National Cheng Kung University in Tainan (which was founded in January 1931 the same month and year of his birth).

Some Background. He was born at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia the second son of four children his mother a cafeteria worker and father newspaper worker. He used his smarts to gain academic scholarships to college and he graduated top of his class at both Regis University in Denver and St. Louis University in healthcare management. Dad would often remark “I started at the top in my field! I began by sweeping and mopping the top floors at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Denver while attending college.” By then he had married my Mom (Anne Herkins) and become a father of sisters Annette and Amy in 1952 and 1953.

After he graduated from St. Lousi University, he accepted an Associate Administrator’s position in Corpus Christi, Texas at Spohn Hospital. He became a father again when sister Alicia was born in 1955. He served with a director of nursing Margaret McGrale who was Canadian and introduce him to a fellow Canadian Gordon Friesen.

They joined forces together at Gordon A. Friesen International as a pioneering healthcare consulting firm. My Dad took an assignment in San Jose, Costa Rica to manage a system of hospitals and moved the growing family, where brother John L. Ryan, III was born in 1957.

Two and half years later, he was in Washington, DC where I was born in 1960, brother Steve in 1961, sister Karen (d) in 1963 and brother Paul in 1964 at Georgetown Unversity Hospital.

In 1969, he and my Mom, Anne, started their own firm, Ryan Advisors and were based in the “extra” bed room in our house for about 6 months before moving the The Chevy Chase Building for 14 years. They eventually acquired a building in Gaithersburg, Maryland The Ryan Center in the ealy 1980s and had offices in Rome, Italy and Singapore. Over the decades, Dad along with my Mom Anne, raised seven children, built an international healthcare consulting practice and influence thousands by their innovative hospital designs, trend setting solutions, cutting edge technology systems and a monthly newsletter, The Ryan Advisory for Healthcare Governing Board that was subscribed and read in all 5o US states and world wide by healthcare leaders.

Dad retired first in Germany and now in seaside resort town of Alanya, Turkey and his wife Melissa his companion for 25 years.

On this Father’s Day, I honor my Dad by sharing his story with you and provide some brief insight into his remarkable career, family and life. I have received some additonal thoughts from his colleagues and friends.

“I met Jack in 1978 at St. Thomas Hospital while he was consulting on the planning of a major facility expansion. I was a young administrative resident and your dad went out of his way to make me feel a part of the planning team. We stayed in touch during my 8 years at St. Thomas and of course through the Ryan Advisory Newsletter. I consider Jack to be one of the early mentors in my career that I am sincerely thankful for. He made a difference in the lives of so many healthcare leaders and organizations. Thanks Jack!” Doug French, former CEO, Ascension Health, St. Louis, MO

“Jack was one of the very valuable associates I had during my tenure at The George Washington University (GWU), particularly when I served as chair of the department.   He was an inspiration to all the students and faculty and became a role model for those who chose to follow a career in consulting.   His support (e.g., through the (Jack & Anne )Ryan Award and student tours of his headquarters) gave the GW program a unique asset.” Philip N. Reeves, DC, LFACHE, Former Chair, The George Washington University, Department of Health Services Management

During this past Memorial Day week, I embarked on a “road trip” with my eldest children to Washington, DC covering six states and 1,200 miles as my daughter begins an internship in the United States Senate this week.

It brought back memories of when I was a White House internback in 1980 and it seems alot has changed since then, but much has remained the same. As we walked from Capitol Hill to the White House I recollected how in the “good old days” when Pennsylvania Avenue was a street I could drive my car in front of The White House between Layfayette Park and I would park my car everyday between The Treasury Bulding the the East Wing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Now, only foot traffic is acceptable due to security concerns of the executive office and President’s home.

Besides the increase in national security around the city and soaring gas prices, alot hasn’t changed in my birthplace of Washington, DC. The momuments are the same, Senator Robert Bryd (D-WV) is still in Senate and healthcare “reform” has been a campaign issues for the past 28 years with little change. As my daughter begins her US Senate internship, she no doubt will hear many of the same protests, arguments, complaints, support and crys to reform for our current healthcare system I heard a generation before.

Politics dominates DC and the status quo is the norm, however, one possible pathway for change is by creating healthcare “think tanks” or “forums” to transform the current healthcare system based on our core American values with individualism and diversity as center pieces.

Two decades ago, I served as director of a healthcare “think tank” based in Washington, DC.  Its primary mission was to bring together some of the brightest minds inside and outside of the healthcare sector to “think outside the box” as potential health reform was taking place and the need for changes in healthcare was a public cry. 

The “TLC” or Trend Leaders Club recruited only healthcare chief executive officers (I know there are those that would question this approach and challenge this group’s intellectual exclusivity) across the nation.  Each quarter this club would gather to hear from leading business, government and healthcare innovators, researchers and academics. Such notable speaker participants included Universal’s founder Alan Miller www.ushinc.com, The Johns Hopkins University’s Dr. Susan Horn www.isisicor.com/Shorn_biosketch.html and ”Mr. Health” Paul Rogers among many others.

I am not sure how much if any impact the TLC had on healthcare directly or indirectly in impacting policy or individual health organizations.  But I do know that the concept of bringing together very smart people and others impacted by our healthcare system to understand how to positively transform a nearly $3 trillion industry was a noble idea then and is today. The question becomes what are the major forces involved and how do we address cost, care delivery, quality care, medical advances, consumerism, funding, diverse labor force with decreasing long term single employer “life time” employment, aging Baby Boomers, etc.

I am coming to believe that the ultimate solution will be created from mirroring our core values as a country that places a large emphasis on the “individual” versus the collective group approach, this despite the current massive structure framework of our healthcare “system” which has been operational for the past 40+ years. 

My colleague Robert Fisher, MD is founder of the Future of Healthcare Forums Network and has developed a platform to facilitate discussions, debate and solutions for healthcare’s future. I am optimistic about its impact given its mission:

Future of Healthcare Forums Network. FOHCF is an organization devoted to creating vibrant discussions among senior leaders in healthcare, business and other creative thinkers. The purpose of FOHCF is to create scenarios for new approaches for change and implementation in healthcare leading to a better healthcare future. The network’s methodology is a unique tool of inquiry. It is focussed on Prevention and Distribution of resources and Access to healthcare. It is founded on the basis of a Medical Democracy, diverse voices creating a more promising future in healthcare.

As the national Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, GreenPresidential campaigns gear up for a general election, healthcare should be a top issue to be discussed, addressed and ultimately creative solutions implemented over the next few years after the political elections are completed. Back in 1980, only 8% of the US GDP was spent on healthcare, now it is 16% with predictions as high as 25% in th enext few years. Healthcare “crisis” must be resolved or the 16% GDP spent of healthcare expenditures will more than likely pale in comparison to cost of serving the 77 million baby boomers as we march towards retirement every 8 seconds beginning in 2011 and consume greater healthcare resources before the next Presidential election cycle. My hope is my 20 year old daughter can look back at her Capitol Hill internship in 28 years and be proud of the accomplishments achieve in healthcare policy during her generations watch and action.

 Take Care,

Michael

www.execimpactgroup.com

Memorial Day seems to have taken on a “commercialize” meaning during the past few decades as a time for new cars, furniture and BBQ “SALES” as well as the “Official” beginning of the Summer versus the actual reason the holiday was established 140 years ago. It is a holiday dedicated to the “memory” of all the war dead, to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives in service to our country.

We salute to the men and women that served our country and their families that have given so much.

Take Care,

Michael

www.execimpactgroup.com