Loyalty

Loyalty

Good morning, team. Here we are for another Monday Message. So today, I wanted to talk just for a couple of minutes about, well, a little bit about this word behind me: loyalty. I wanted to just kind of highlight for everybody another team member. Somebody that is exhibiting our core values and this word, loyalty, in many different ways. Some of you may not know Christian Rallison. He’s been with us for a few years. He’s a leader amongst our Central East Side Safety Team, and he works tirelessly with his team. I think that everybody on his team pretty much loves him because he’s got such a nice disposition, demeanor, and attitude. He’s got care for his team, for his community.

Recently, the team was alerted to, and what I mean by team is the executive team. Our leadership team was alerted that Christian was invited by the business community, a couple of leaders in the business community, to go on a nice trip to, I believe it’s Tennessee. To view and visit and work alongside and witness alongside some business leaders in the Portland area how the safety and care programs are working in that city, in that particular location.

And what an honor that really is for people in the business community to recognize Christian for, again, his loyalty, his dedication, his attitude towards service. The way he communicates with all the different businesses we have had here in just this last number of months. Quite a few different business leaders, politicians, board members, committee members asking to go on walkabouts in the district, and they’ve done it with Christian many, many times. And we hear great feedback from that.

Christian, I want to say thank you from the entire team for your dedication and your loyalty. I want to call back to our core values and our core purpose: be valuable because nothing less would do. You’re doing that in spades. Humility—I have never seen Christian puff himself up in front of anybody else. He is so humble. As a matter of fact, he calls me “sir” more times than I want to recollect. Because every time he says it to me, I sometimes look behind me to see if he’s talking to somebody’s father or something. But Christian is an amazing young man.

I remember not too long after he started, his grandfather passed away. And he actually called me up and asked me for permission to go to the funeral. As if I wasn’t gonna say no. But that’s the kind of young man he is. That’s the kind of dedicated individual Christian is. He works very hard, he shows he’s got a huge investment in the community and in our team, and in his team members. He has a huge investment in them. I know that Sonja, who happens to be his director, is extremely proud of him and is thankful that he’s taking care of things on his side to make her job that much easier.

Christian, again, we just want to say thank you for your loyalty and exhibiting the core values. Which is what Monday Messages are all about: sending that message that what we’re doing in our community, what we do with our team matters, how we do it matters. So thank you for showing us that on a continued basis. All right, till next week, guys. Till next Monday. Be valuable; nothing less will do. I’ll see you.