Mike

Really hard for me to capture this one. The quote says, "A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they will never sit." This was a gift for Mike, who is my boss. It's been a hard transition for him to go from serving clients where results were immediate and tangible to being the Chief Learning and Development Officer where, on a good day, you influence the creation of learning platforms and initiatives. In spite of the personal challenge, Mike has accomplished so much for the people of Ernst & Young and I wanted him to know that I recognized and appreciated his legacy.

I have three males on my team and failed to photograph their gifts. I bought each one an appropriate book for their coaching specialty and then made them each a leather bookmark. I dyed the leather and wrote sayings on each one that I think captured their personalities. For example, on Jim's I wrote, "I see good people" as he always looks for what is good in others and never has an unkind word for anyone. I attached a "charm" to each bookmark. I searched thru rolls of pennies until I found the year that each of them joined EY and then attached that penny to an antiqued disc that I stamped with the phrase "lucky EY". I'm the one that has been lucky to know all the members of this team!