By David Daggett on 4/27/2009 5:26 AM

The Best Of Life Is Yet To Be

       This past week our Lewis & Daggett team hosted Coach Bob Anastas as part of our Safe Sober Prom Night program. It was a privilege for us to travel with Coach Anastas across the Triad to make 12 presentations to high school students.

       Coach Anastas is quite a passionate personality. He is a professional motivational speaker and national founder of S.A.D.D. (Students Against Driving Drunk). In addition, as a hockey player and football player, he was an All-American athlete in two sports in college. He was drafted as a quarterback and a punter by the New England Patriots.

       He has been a teacher, coach and administrator. Coach Anastas has Masters and Doctorate degrees, and has won numerous awards including Massachusetts Teacher of the Year.

      Anastas has addressed more than two million students in thousands of high schools and colleges throughout the country. A television movie dramatizing his life and his work with young people has been broadcast on both CBS and HBO.

      Coach Anastas knows that scaring young people with the physical and psychological effects of drugs and alcohol has not and does not work. Accordingly, Coach Anastas focuses on putting them on the right road to success. His presentations weave in humor, stories, and interaction with the audience.

     Coach Anastas shows students how to be successful by following four simple steps: Run when others walk; sleep when others party; take your weakness and make it your strength; and keep your body under control at all times.

      The message is very clear - "Your destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice," Anastas says. "You will choose where you are going."

      Thanks Coach Anastas for joining us for a week in the Triad! As the Coach says, "Choose wisely, for the best of life is yet to be!"

 

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By David Daggett on 4/20/2009 6:54 AM

Kidney Injury Following Colonoscopy

      The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has become aware of problems associated with Oral Sodium Phosphate products (OSP). The products, which are used for bowel cleansing before certain medical exams such as colonoscopy, have been linked to a serious form of kidney failure.

      The use of prescribed OSP drugs Visicol and OsmoPrep has been found to increase the risk of acute phosphate nephropathy.

Popular bowel cleansing products (Oral Sodium Phosphate) linked to kidney failure.

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By David Daggett on 4/13/2009 6:54 AM

A Little Stress Relief

      We all need a little stress relief at times. This spring has been very active around our office with the Safe Sober Prom Night program, a new office in Statesville, serving clients, and keeping up with our daily activities.

      This Thursday, April 16, is National Stress Awareness Day. According to the American Psychological Association the rate of stress in our lives is on the increase. Stress has adverse health consequences including stress-related diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and depression.

      April is also designated as Stress Awareness Month. The purpose is to help inform and make people aware about the dangers of stress, and to learn strategies to help deal with and lessen stress in our lives.

      Having a positive attitude, a supportive family, and maintaining physical health are ways to deal with stress. Establishing a priority list of things to be done, and accomplishing them, is an ideal way to lessen the stress in our lives.

       Spending time with friends and family is recognized by the experts possibly the best way to relieve stress. This is good old fashioned in person fellowship - not texting, not cell phone, not e-mail - rather face-to-face, person-to-person interaction. Perhaps the decline in our social interaction is a reason for the societal increase in stress.

      Interestingly, according to the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine people who go for even a single massage are able to reduce their blood pressure by seven points. Certainly, lower blood pressure helps us handle and deal with stress more effectively. Accordingly, we have a surprise treat for the folks on our office on Thursday to help lower their blood pressure, deal with some of the stress, and to let them know how much we appreciate them.

      In our busy action-packed lives let's be sure we take a little time to make sure to handle and lower the stress in our lives. It will make us healthier, more productive, and more fun to be around.

 

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By David Daggett on 4/6/2009 7:00 AM

Proud Of Our Team

      It is an exciting and busy time of year for our Lewis & Daggett team! Prom season is now here, and we are in full swing with our Safe Sober Prom Night program and events.

       The photograph above is most of our Lewis & Daggett team in the 2009 Safe Sober Prom Night t-shirts. Over the next seven weeks we will personally visit 39 high schools in central North Carolina and personally deliver more than 15,000 L & D donated t-shirts to high school juniors and seniors who pledge to stay safe and sober.

      The Safe Sober Prom Night program is now in its 19^th year and has become part of the culture of our law firm. Working with, supporting, and encouraging our youth helps ensure the quality of our community for years to come. We are proud of our Lewis & Daggett team and how they all contribute to help get the job done.

      Executing the Safe Sober Prom Night program is a large-scale operation. Many days we are at more than one school and deploy teams from our staff to the schools to work with the students and have them sign the "Do It Right!" pledge. We donate the time, manpower, T-shirts, and enthusiasm that makes SSPN work. Part of what makes us so proud is that this program reflects the culture and values of our organization.

      Teamwork is also exhibited through this program. Having our team come together for a common cause and a worthy endeavor is inspirational to see. Our team needs very little instruction as they intuitively work together to get the job done. Over the years we believe this teamwork has helped make us a better law firm as well.

        Please watch for our students wearing the Safe Sober Prom Night t-shirts. They need encouragement and support from all of us. Additionally, members of our Lewis & Daggett team will be at high schools in your area. Please feel free to stop and speak with them. We are always glad to renew friendships and see friendly faces as we travel throughout the Triad during prom season.

 

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By David Daggett on 3/30/2009 6:44 AM

A Featured Attraction

     Are you ready? A Featured Attraction is ready to begin! Prom season begins this week. We are all excited and ready for this special time of the year.

SSPN Commercial Shoot – West Forsyth High School

     This past week, we got a preview of "A Featured Attraction" with a group of students at West Forsyth High School. West Forsyth had the highest percentage of students take the Safe Sober Prom Night "Do It Right!" pledge out of all of our local high schools. In doing so, they won the opportunity to participate in this year’s Safe Sober Prom Night public service promotional TV advertisement.

     The West Forsyth students have great leadership with Principal Kurt Telford and faculty leader Ms. Sharon Hall. Ms. Hall and her students coordinated with the drama department for this extra curricular activity which really turned out to be a great experience for the students.

     A team from WXII TV turned the auditorium at the high school into a temporary film studio in order to shoot the spot. Mike Lewis and I had a great time with the students, and in the process they learned a bit of a lesson in actual film production.

     Our Lewis & Daggett team is always impressed with our local students. These students at West Forsyth High School were top-notch in all respects. We enjoyed the afternoon we spent with them, had a lot of fun, and are really excited about their future.

     This year’s SSPN TV ad should hit the airwaves in the next week or so. It will be posted at www.safeandsober.com. The website will also enable students to take the virtual pledge, contact friends, get prom tips, and keep up with all of the SSPN activities.

     Please join us in encouraging and supporting our students – they are off to a great start!

 

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By David Daggett on 3/23/2009 6:51 AM

SSPN T-Shirt Design Winner

      Last Friday we made a surprise presentation at Elkin High School of the 2009 Safe Sober Prom Night T-shirt design contest winner. The winning design which can be seen here will be featured on more than 15,000 T-shirts which will be distributed to high school students in our area as part of our Safe Sober Prom Night program.

      This year's winner is Mason Bovender from Elkin High School. Pictured above from left to right are art teacher Rita Minton, Mason Bovender, David Daggett from Lewis & Daggett, SRO Officer McMillan of Elkin High School, and Principal Mark Byrd.

      Prior to the classroom presentation, only Ms. Minton and Principal Byrd were aware that Mason was this year's winner. Principal Byrd arranged to have Mason's parents present for the presentation. Under the guise of making a guest presentation to the art students, our Lewis & Daggett team arrived in Ms. Minton's classroom supposedly to present a lecture on using art and graphic design in the business world. After Mason was called forward to participate in the presentation, it was a total surprise to Mason and the class that he was awarded the first place prize in the Safe Sober Prom Night T-shirt design contest.

      Ms. Minton was not surprised that one of her students won this year's competition. In fact, last fall at a preliminary Safe Sober Prom Night meeting she commented that her students would be competitive in this year's competition. Clearly, she inspires her students to participate in the community and to take advantage of opportunities to showcase their talents.

     An obviously proud Ms. Minton watched along with Mason's family as he was presented with the $500.00 check and a specially framed T-shirt commemorating his winning design. Our Lewis & Daggett team is impressed by the support and encouragement the teachers, faculty and administration give their students.

       This year Lewis & Daggett celebrates 19 years of working with students in the Safe Sober Prom Night program. Since founding the program, the efforts have become part of our firm culture. The next eight weeks are extremely busy for our Lewis & Daggett team as we visit and distribute the T-shirts at all of the local participating schools. This year our team will personally visit approximately 40 schools encouraging students with the "Do It Right!" pledge.

 

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By David Daggett on 3/16/2009 6:49 AM

The Secret Ingredient

        Chef Travis Myers recently made a presentation to our Lewis and Daggett team on his "secret ingredient." Chef Myers has quite a resume’. He is currently the Executive Chef at the popular River Birch Lodge.

       Myers is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York City, one of the premiere cooking schools in the world.

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By David Daggett on 3/9/2009 6:45 AM

Healthy Living

     This past weekend our Lewis & Daggett team participated in the Healthy Living Expo at the Winston-Salem Convention Center. This is an annual event in town that brings out a large cross section of folks from our community.

     Many thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth - we enjoyed seeing you and speaking with you. It seemed like we had one of the busiest and most popular booths at the whole expo. Members of our L & D team staffed the booth throughout the day, and we always had at least 7 or so of us working.

     From the photo above you can see that our L & D team had a good time, and engaged a number of attendees in the fun of the event. As you know from our Values and Culture, we enjoy this sort of interaction and it makes us feel like we are furthering our law firm mission.

     The event is a good opportunity for all of us to improve our teamwork outside the office. We are always favorably impressed at the commitment of our folks to events like this that are strictly voluntary in participation.

     The last several years we have also used the Healthy Living Expo as sort of a kick off for our Safe Sober Prom Night activities. Prom season is just around the corner so we try to start raising awareness within the community.

     Planning, teamwork, and friends made the Expo memorable and enjoyable. We enjoyed the time we spent together and the fun the we had sharing with the community what we all like to do here at the firm!

     Each year at the Expo we meet new friends, and rekindle old relationships. If you dropped by our booth, thank you! We were glad to see you!

 

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By David Daggett on 3/2/2009 9:38 AM

Fresh Off The Press

      The Book is Here, The Book is Here! Finally, the fruit of our labor has arrived!!! We now are in possession of "North Carolina Injury Law: A Reference for Accident Victims," the book that we have been working on for the last year.

       Writing a book was an interesting and lengthy process. It is also quite a learning experience. We wrote several drafts, proofread it a number of times, worked with printers, graphics experts, and publishers. It was a lot of work, but now that the book is here the result is also very exciting and rewarding.

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By David Daggett on 2/23/2009 9:56 AM

Embrace Our Students

      Students are always exciting to be around. At Lewis & Daggett we spend a lot of time working with youth in our community. Through our Safe Sober Prom Night program and other presentations throughout the year we spend a lot of time with young people.

      This past week we spoke to a group of students in the YMCA program. The Y does a great job developing and encouraging these young people. We talked with the after school group last year, and they invited us back to join them again.

     We made a presentation on Internet safety to these students. This is a topic we have spoken on a number of times over the past year to student, parent, church, and community groups. This topic seems very relevant and is very well received by the students.

     One thing that is always we clear to us is that students today strongly desire adult leadership. We are all looking for encouragement, support, direction, leadership, and love. As leaders, as business people, as church leaders, and as spouses and parents we have an inherent obligation to each do our small part to help these students along and ensure our future.

     There is one sure way to ensure the future of all the things that are important and valuable to us. Love other children as much we love our own. This is easy to say but certainly not always easy to do. When done, however, it is as moving of an experience as a human can experience.

      A common denominator of all successful people is that they have had at least one other person outside their own family take a special interest in them. Just one person who connects with them, cares about them, follows them, encourages and supports them. Sort of like good old fashioned mentoring. If we each have our personal mentor and our personal mentee, how can we help but succeed individually and collectively.

      This one-by-one relationship based success formula isn’t political, sectarian, agended, or divisive. It is simply being there to support, encourage and love. Anyone can do it, and everyone will receive it. Together we all can, and must, ensure our bright future.

      Embracing and encouraging students is part of our Lewis & Daggett culture. If you would like a presentation on Internet Safety, Student Success, Our Legal System, or Safe Sober, contact us at 1-866-299-1769, or e-mail at info@lewisdaggett.com.

 

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