First I would like to thank everyone who came out to vote for this honor.  Thank you Pauline and John, for this fine forum that honors people in our community in this way.  This community has so many wonderful people here! I feel blessed to be part of this community - Adlandpro is the best! 

I was born in Oct. 1949 in the Netherlands in a small town called Harderwijk. Shortly after World War II my family immigrated to America when I was 2 years old. We had some relatives living in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan and that is where we decided to live also.  

After just 6 months in America I came down with the then much dreaded polio virus. It paralyzed mainly the Achilles tendon in my foot and calf.
Eventually I was able to get around pretty good and even took part in sports which was a good thing, because I disliked school a lot and so it made school more bearable.

 One of the best things that happened to me is that I got married to my best friend, her name is Elly. We met when she was on vacation camping at a Holland State park in Michigan

Early on in our marriage we decided to move to Anchorage Alaska with our 3 small children. This was when the oil pipeline was being built in the late 70’s.  I worked at a furniture retail store, and we also owned a daycare center. Those were fun years we loved to go camping, fishing, and canoeing with our kids. We were able to watch the Iditarod race close up, and now that the kids are grown up they still talk often about the Alaska years.

After a few years though we decided it was better to raise our children in Michigan near family so we moved back to the Grand Rapids area where I have worked mostly in furniture manufacturing as a production supervisor in the finishing departments.

Almost 10 years ago I started having problems with new muscle weakness and constant fatigue. Doctors call it Post-polio Syndrome and have advised me to retire, because my problems would only get worse. So that’s what I did. Now I do volunteer work in our church along with working as Bible Instructor with Cross Roads Bible Institute which is a ministry to prison inmates.             

  
For many years I have been interested in the quality of drinking water, and have been a Independent Distributor for over 18 years with a company called Multi-Pure Drinking Water Systems.  Check out their website: www.multipure.com they have what I consider the best of the best in water purification Systems.  Once you buy the system it costs only 8 cents per gallon.        

I am also part of the Jerky Direct Team here at Adland called http://Leonards.jerkydirect.com   Direct Jerky has really tasty jerky and great products! Join a Jerky direct team you will be glad that you did. :)  

Thank you and God Bless,

Leonard