A week has now passed and my heart is still full of joy and gratitude for our Aspirations to Actions Cohort 2’s surprise serenade at the end of The Harwood Institute’s Public Innovators Lab held September 21–23 at the Bradenton Area Convention Center.

Imagine over 100 people joining together and singing to you.

Well, that’s what happened after the Library Leadership Teams from Manatee and Sarasota counties called Rich Harwood and his Coaches Bill Booth, Cheryl Gorman, David Moore and Carlton Sears, along with The Patterson Foundation’s CEO Debra Jacobs and Aspirations to Actions Initiative Consultant Beth Doyle and Guides Alicia Chalmers, Bill Little and Mike Mansfield to the front of the room.

The adapted lyrics (special thanks to Sarabeth, Cheri and Ava) and a short video clip follows. It was truly overwhelming, in the best way possible. Thank you and keep aspiring!

“Now We’ve Had the Time of Our Lives”

Lyrics adapted by Sarabeth Kalajian, Cheri Coryea & Ava Edhe from “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”

Cue the music ...

Now we’ve had the time of our lives

No we’ve never felt like this before

Yes, we swear it’s the truth

And we owe it all to you!

Cause we’ve had the time of our lives

And we owe it all to you

We’ve been waiting for so long

Now we’ve finally found some one

To look outwardly

We saw the writing on the walls

Authority, Authenticity, Accountability

Now with passion in our eyes

There’s no way we could go back to inwardly

So we take each other’s hand

‘Cause we seem to understand the urgency

Just remember

Aspirations the one thing

We can’t get enough of

So we’ll tell you something

This could be WOW because

Now we’ve had the time of our lives

No we’ve never felt like this before

Yes, we swear it’s the truth

And we owe it all to you!