Tonight I am getting to do what most people never get to do - come back to your hometown and say thanks to all your friends. I am thrilled to be here with you.

If you take one message away from tonight's program, let it be that we can all make a difference - each one of us.

In preparing to talk with you tonight, I remembered a story of the little boy who was walking along the beach, picking up starfish and throwing them back in the ocean. A man came along and began laughing at the boy. "You are wasting your time," he told the boy.

"There are thousands of starfish here. You cannot possibly make a difference throwing a few back like that." With that, the boy picked up another starfish and sailed it back into the ocean. He looked up at the man and said, "Made a difference for that one."

Joseph Devlin, our honoree tonight, made a difference many, many times. And Phillipsburg is very grateful.

Tonight, I want to tell you how Phillipsburg made a difference for me - how the gifts I received here have helped me, again and again, in each phase of my life.

Phillipsburg is where my roots are, and I am very proud tonight to come back to thank you, the people of Phillipsburg, for those gifts. P'burg gave me four values I will never forget:

• Love and support
• A belief in myself, despite a so-called handicap
• The courage to take risks
• AND the desire and determination to succeed.

I have benefited all my life from the values I learned here in P'burg - 50 years now - years that have taken me to Greece, Italy, Turkey, Taiwan and many other countries. I have taken a lot of Phillipsburg along with me, and tonight I want to share my story with you.

I grew up in an apartment above Dick's Store, which our family owned and ran. When I went to the Sitgreaves School, I was pretty good in math, but I did not do very well with words. In fact, I did terrible with words. I was put in the third reading group. My problem was - and still is - dyslexia, a learning difference.

Back in 1953, nobody knew what dyslexia was. I read differently. I see a "B" and think it is a "D." I can look at a "U" and see a "W". How many of you think the letter "O" is the greatest letter in the alphabet? Well, I do. Because it does not change, no matter which way you turn it.

There are literally hundreds of learning differences, we now know. And I have several types. I am in good company. Several well-known leaders have had learning differences - people like Charles Schwab, Winston Churchill, and even Tom Cruise.

I often have difficulty concentrating - keeping my mind on one subject - which is why dyslexics like me usually do not like to read at all. And why they do poorly in school. They called me stupid and put me in the third reading group. Sometimes they thought I was just trying to be a cutup and disruptive in class. I was even called mentally retarded.

I will never forget ... never, ever forget ... being laughed at in church when I sang "Pears to the Lord" instead of "Praise to the Lord." And when I sang, "Praise dog from whom all blessings flow." I saw the word God backwards. But I did not know it.

I will also never forget Rev. Moon, our pastor. He was one of the few people who figured me out. One day he said, "Don, I don't believe you are trying to be a cutup. I think you just have trouble with the words. Come over after school, and I will get a hymnal and help you sound out the words. So you can enjoy singing at next Sunday's service."

I did go over and he did help me. In fact, Rev. Moon let me take the hymnal home. The point is Rev. Moon did not just discount me. He had to make a change in his thinking. And that helped me. My father and mother also helped me by giving me good solid values and hiring tutors to help me learn. My three big brothers - two of whom are here tonight - gave me their love and support, too. And family friends, like Chick Craig helped us through some very difficult times - like when my father passed away last year. But the hardest part of growing up dyslexic was the put-downs.

Kidding people is the worst form of humor. I know because I got kidded by a lot of kids. But not by a few close friends - like Billy and Shirley Dukett, and Kenny Scherer who I have known since grammar school. Or by other friends I met in high school - like Jimmy Bellis, Chip Clymer, and Joe Lissi.

I have hundreds, even thousands of acquaintances from all over the world. But I have only a few good friends and they are from P'burg.

It is easy to feel like an outcast when you are growing up dyslexic. But I was never an outcast, because those friends made me an "in-cast." We went to school together. Some of us even went to Sunday school together. They knew I was not stupid.

Without those friends here in P'burg, I may not be living today. They gave me balance. They taught me to believe in myself, even when things got dark. Years later, in Greece and Italy, things did get very dark at times, such as when armed men threatened to take over our bank. But I knew I was OK, my P'burg friends taught me I was OK. Belief in yourself is a powerful motivator.

The defining moments of Don Winkler were not when I became a Bank President or CEO. They were the little victories - the opportunities I got from those who cared when I was a kid back in P'burg.

I remember my 6th grade teacher, Dominic DeFranco, who was also my after-school tutor. He was a big guy. When Kenny, Billy and the rest of us got to the 8th grade, Mr. DeFranco called me into his office and said, "I am going to make you a patrol boy." I was thrilled! You got a badge and a big red flag and could stop the cars.

He said, "Don, all you have to do is raise your grades from 'D' to 'B'." I made straight "B+'s." I wanted that job and he thought I could do it.

It is important to give kids a place to go - somewhere they can learn - and feel good about themselves. The city fathers were good about giving their kids a place to go - they built Walter's Park, the pool, and the Firth Youth Center. I remember the Center when it was just one room. Then a gym was added, then another room.

I was good at electronics, so they asked me to help out. In fact, under the guidance of Don Metz, I practically wired the place. Suddenly, everyone started asking me to fix their irons, electric fans, and TVs. I will never forget Leo Fiamma, Joe Fiamma's uncle who owned Fiamma's appliance. Leo took me in and let me work on appliances. I think I fixed every toaster that broke in P'burg from 1962 to 1965. Jay Decker worked there, too - he taught me to fix the big stuff - TVs. Leo and Jay gave me self-worth. I learned I could do things.

There were others in P'burg who gave me the courage to take risks and make a difference - people like my football coaches: Gene Piambianchi, Mickey Frinzl, Benny Leonard, and Billy Conwell.

And then there was Mr. Bellis, Jimmy's dad, the football coach. Even today, I would have a hard time calling him Harold. Mr. Bellis literally gave me a swift kick in the butt when I missed my block at right tackle. He made me get up when I got flattened by a 300-pound guard. He made me try again and succeed when I wanted to quit and go home. I still feel that kick in the butt today, Mr. Bellis, when I am afraid I might fail - and it gets me through every time.

I will also never forget Thad Turner, my wrestling coach, who was your speaker at last year's banquet. Thad always believed in me. And I always looked up to him. You worked hard for Thad, and then worked some more the next day, because Thad said you had to. Now, I was not the best wrestler on the team - they called me "canvasback" - but Thad gave me a chance, and pushed me harder. He built the character of the man you see here tonight.

Forty years later, when I was Chairman of CitiBank in Italy, anti-American terrorists bombed a few of our branches. It was frightening - I really did not want to get up and go to work the next morning. But I remembered those coaches in P'burg. I could hear Harold Bellis and Thad Turner telling me - Get Up! - and so I did.

I also owe a lot to Kenny Lutz, the principal and an outstanding citizen, whom the Chamber honored two years ago. I credit Kenny for getting me into college. He was an assistant coach and my guidance counselor. He said, "Don, you ought to go to technical school first, and keep pushing yourself. Then go on to a university. Keep believing in yourself," he said. And I listened to him. I did achieve my Bachelor's degree and worked towards my MBA.

I was in my sophomore year in college when I finally figured out what was wrong - why I learned things so differently. I was dyslexic.

That is a scary discovery for a young man with an uncertain future. But I remembered what my friends and coaches taught me. They gave me the discipline, the desire and the determination to succeed. I decided my dyslexia was only a difference - a difference in the way I looked at things. I decided to use that difference to be successful. As bankers say, to turn that liability into an asset.

Seeing things backwards helped me to ask out-of-the-box questions. I found that this could be a big advantage in my job. I thought of things other people had never thought of.

In my first job with a microelectronics manufacturing company, a few colleagues and I figured out how to re-structure the way we were making micro-chips. We were able to reduce the cost of a chip from a couple of hundred dollars to just a few pennies. I knew Leo Fiamma and Don Metz would be proud of that.

Then I met John Reed, Chairman of CitiBank. He said he was dyslexic too. He said he would rather have a person who was dyslexic working for him than all the PhDs on his staff - because we had more desire.

Next thing I knew, I was in Greece running the CitiBank affiliate bank, and I had to learn Greek. They hired tutors for me - but you can imagine how difficult it was.

It was 30 years later, but I was still sounding out the words just like Rev. Moon and I used to sound them out back in P'burg. I devised my own system of visualizing each syllable - AF - TOE - KEY - KNEE - TOE. That is Greek for car. Did I want to give up? All the time. But I had a secret. Thad Turner and Harold Bellis and many others in P'burg had given me a gift called desire. They taught me to be hungry and determined to succeed. I also understood the importance of hard work and taking care of the customer, which I learned in my dad's grocery store.

Dick Winkler believed in giving customers the best. I did not realize that bread was not supposed to be hard until I got married. All we had on our table at home was 2-3 day-old bread. Customers always got the fresh stuff. I never knew it. Everything I learned about making sure the customer was satisfied I learned at Dick's Store.

About six years ago, I was asked by Bank One Corporation in Columbus, Ohio, to organize a new consumer finance subsidiary. Once again, at Finance One, I have applied the basic values I learned here in Phillipsburg.

For me, every day is still an absolute challenge. I cry some mornings, and I laugh other mornings. I still have the courage and desire P'burg taught me. And I still want to succeed.

I have had two great wives, two great kids. I feel very fortunate, compared to people I have seen in Athens and Istanbul, in Naples and other places. So you can see, no matter how far away I roamed, P'burg was always there for me, giving again and again.

The values I learned from mom and dad, from my brothers, from my friends, from my coaches and my pastor, they were always there.

Here in P'burg is where I learned the secret that:

• Love and support,
• Belief in yourself,
• Courage to take risks,
• AND desire and determination

Can get you through anything at all - wherever you are in this world.

I come back here tonight to thank you for giving me those values - to tell you what you have meant to me. And to encourage you to remember your own roots and give back to those who gave so much. Look around tomorrow at all the youngsters - those in your family and those at church. Those in the school yard and those in the parks.

Give back to the children of P'burg, like our parents and teachers and coaches gave to us. Give of yourself and you will be remembered, perhaps far longer than you would ever guess or believe.

I want to conclude with a short story - a children's story written more than 30 years ago by Shel Silverstein. It is called The Giving Tree.

It begins, Once there was a tree ... and she loved a little boy. Every day, the boy would come and gather her leaves. He would swing from her branches and climb her trunk. He sat in her shade and he ate her apples. The boy loved the tree very much, and the tree was very happy. But time went by and the tree was often alone.

One day the boy returned to the tree. He was older now and needed money to live. So the tree gave him her apples to sell in the city. The boy carried her apples away. And the tree was very happy.

Many years passed before the boy returned. This time he told the tree he needed wood so that he could build a home for his family. The tree gave him her branches, and once again she was happy. When the boy's family had grown and moved on, and the boy had aged many years, he returned to the tree.

The tree offered him her trunk so that he could build a boat and sail away. And so he did, and the tree was very happy. After a very long time, the boy returned once again, when the tree was just a stump, and the boy was very, very old.

She told the boy that she was sorry, that she had nothing left to give. But the boy was old and didn't need very much. So the tree gave him a quiet place to sit and rest. And they were both very, very happy.

People of Phillipsburg, you are my tree. You were always there for me giving again and again. And so I am here, humble before you, to say, thank you, P'burg. Thank you for giving me the greatest gift anyone can give. I am back again Phillipsburg, and I am very, very happy.

Thank you for coming here tonight and listening to my story.