Community is ONE

A message from our Founder and Director of Community Outreach, Matt Miller

Gregory Scott Reid said, "The greatest success we'll know is helping others succeed and grow."

I was born and raised in Newark, NY. As a young boy, my parents split. I had a self-employed carpenter as a father, and a mother that worked two jobs. I lived with my father, who for 25 years has worked at the same rate-of-pay, because he never wanted to raise them on his customers. Due to his long hours, I was raised by my grandparents, that my father and I both lived with. My grandmother retired from Clifton Springs hospital, and my grandfather from NYSEG, after serving in WWII. They met before he left for war and married after he returned.

My grandmother had an undying desire to make people happy and serve people around her. She was known as the “piano lady” volunteering at Clifton Springs hospital every Tuesday night to play for the residents, while my grandfather volunteered in the snack bar. She played piano at several other places as well; it was her true passion. Furthermore, week after week my grandmother would submit letters to the Sidewalk Talk in the Courier Gazette, to create awareness and inspire positive change. Whether it was trying to get things going for the children, like an ice-skating rink or many other things she shared her thoughts on, she always tried to inspire a positive change by taking on Newark Orioles and doing anything that she could for those she didn’t know.

As I grew up, I learned that a smile shared was far more fulfilling than a life of selfishness. I grew up with such selfless role models, that it became a way of life- not a choice. I was always told that she could tell that I always try to make people smile, and to never lose that. I have carried that with me over the years, which led me to wanting to help more people.

I became a manager, and with this role I noticed quickly that many of my employees were driven and wanted more out of life, but didn’t know how to get there. I also noticed that as a society we spend so much time in self-reflection, that we forget we live in a world filled with others and be present. The ability to teach, mentor, and raise each other up has become more of an essential than ever. I started my career as a mail carrier at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in Newark, NY to provide financial stability for my family of four amazing children, and an amazing wife that inspires me daily. I also started this career so that I could be involved with the community again, so many people in the area, if for nothing more, have a smile to reassure them that it is not as cold as it appears.

We are an area of many, but a community of one. — We are not filled with bad people; we are filled with people that are tired. 

My goal as a leader and my involvement with the community outreach, is to bring us all together and lift the others up. My life today is not my life yesterday — you can't change the past, but you should want to better your future.

So let's get this community back to where it once was and leave no one behind. "It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed" - Napoleon Hill.

Take the time share experiences and knowledge, I would love to hear about them! People's experiences can help educate others, and raise them up… We don’t need to sit alone. 

"Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us” - Wilma Rudolph…...  and we need all of you. 

I look forward to talking to all of you and meeting the ones I don’t know. 

This community deserves a better you and a better us.

Thank you,

Matt Miller

Co-Founder, Director of Community Outreach