During the third week of March 2014, Odadee Sam Addo would after dinner take a stroll in his manicured garden often talking to himself. Something must be weighing on his mind his daughters sensed. Indeed the stagnant and stunted growth of the Presec Alumni Association was a worry to him. Fielding calls to like-minded concerned alumni in New York, Minnesota, Toronto, Accra and London; he purposed to arrest the alarming state of affairs.
Great leaders identify problems and solve them; they are focused and results oriented. Just as President Franklin Roosevelt’s first 100 days in office saw the rollout of programs to take US out of the Depression, Senior Sam the Project Management professional went to work.
When his flight landed in Accra that early spring afternoon, he instructed his driver to go straight to Presec Assembly Hall where a lecture he had helped organized to revive the alumni association was about to start. “Masa, are we not going home first?” the driver asked. “No, l am running late for the Presec program; I came down purposely for that” Senior Sam shot back. But how could this driver forget that six months earlier when his boss was in Accra, he had to doze off behind the wheel waiting for him to emerge from a high level Presec meeting with the Global President at East Legon that went past mid night.
Alumni volunteer work is about passion of which Sam Addo has unlimited quantity in his tank. Was it any wonder therefore global executives appointed him Director of Diaspora Affairs a position he has discharged with distinction by assisting revival of UK chapter and getting Odadees in faraway Australia to a common platform. At the expense of his time and money, he has attended many alumni activities across the globe often at short notices. What drives him to go above and beyond is his goal of making the Odadee Association the best organized alumni group not only in North America but globally.
When naysayers postured that a Presec Alumni Association in North America cannot survive, they underestimated the resolve, steel and mettle of this Okuapeman Royal. Senior Sam undertook a diagnosis of the lethargic and apathetic attitude of alumni towards their school and launched a surgical frontal attack on these anti-growth ‘viruses’ immobilizing them for good. Today Odadee North America is a vibrant alumni chapter with a reenergized base and loyal foot soldiers
Sam Addo’s mastery of the English Language is simply confounding. A sentence from him brings out a word that sends his listeners scrambling for dictionaries. What else do you expect from the son of the articulate and well-researched knowledgeable Lawyer E.M. V Addo?
Senior Sam, you are an invaluable resourceful asset to Presec Alumni. Today we recognize your stellar and sterling performance at helm of affairs. When the story of the revival of Presec Alumni is told, your name will come up for honors. God bless you.
Eddiefico
Akro House 76-83
