April 2012

Wilburn Smith was living his dream in Holdenville, Okla., during the late 1970s. He was serving as manager of the local IGA grocery store, working hard each week, with the promise of ultimately being offered a chance to purchase the thriving business.

Then something unexpected happened.

The store owner, for whom Smith had worked for over a decade, sold the business out from under him. The promise of ownership disappeared and, in 1980, with no other training and no other prospects, Smith took his cousin, Mike, up on an offer: to sell Pre-Paid Legal plans.

Learning how to help people resolve conflicts and move on with their lives can be very rewarding, according to a group of volunteers who do just that.

Each year dozens of Oklahomans agree to give their time and energy to become a volunteer mediator through the Early Settlement Mediation Program. Pottawatomie County, however, is a little short on mediators and needs some volunteers to assist with both community- and court-related disputes.

To start with, she contracted polio when she was almost 6. She escaped paralysis but it left her weak. Polio also gave Dr. Carol Masheter something else – the determination to be strong plus the dream of doing something extraordinary.