The Firemans are powerful examples of that.  They’ve been amazingly generous and proactive and thoughtful about the future and how to use their terrific success in business to do good in the world.  There are many people who are inspired by that.

  My view is that in our collective societal value system, we have lost a sense of, and a commitment to the Common Good. We need to get it back. Material wealth, as a metric of success, is way too important, in business and in life, at the detriment of so many other values that are really what feed our souls.  Money can’t buy us love.  And I’d sing you the Beatles song if Paul Fireman hadn’t already said, “I hope your speech isn’t too long.” But anyway, money can buy scholarships and tools to help families achieve self sufficiency. And we appreciate everyone in this room and the financial support you’ve given.  I don’t mean to say money isn’t important.  So as long as families are still falling off the edge of viability, we will keep working on ending the root causes of homelessness.  When we fix that – we’ll move on to something else.

    So the thank you and awards here really go to all of you for your support, the scholars for you inspiration, the Deers - my terrific peers and coworkers. And by the way it isn’t just the SHP funds we have raised but this group also takes Gingerbread House decorating to all the shelters in Boston every November and engages at a personal level. Person to person philanthropy is also really, really important. It’s not enough to write a check and then go off to your nice life. The engagement is so important.