Jim Reed’s Personal Page
This page is devoted to the things that make me tick when I am not at the office…..
First and foremost is my family. I am blessed with a wonderful family: My best friend/wife Meg who traded her own career as an attorney to be a wonderful, hands-on Mom to our three kids: Hunter (soon to be 17 years old– a Junior at Elmira Free Academy), Kelsey (15 years old and a Freshman at EFA) and Gavin (12 years old and a Sixth-grader at Ernie Davis Middle School). Here’s a 2002 picture of me with my kids:
All three kids are VERY active with tons of activities with soccer being the common denominator. All three play for their school teams (EFA– Go Blue Devils!). We were very proud of the fact that the EFA boy’s team won Sectionals in 2006 and the girl’s team won the Good Sportsmanship Award in 2006.
In addition to their school teams, all three kids also play with travel soccer teams with the Soaring Capital Soccer Club (SCSC). In fact, because of their involvement with SCSC, I was recruited to be on the SCSC Board of Directors and shortly later drafted as the President of SCSC. Next time I have to learn to just say NO! :-) Actually, I truly love the camaraderie of our soccer club and we have a dynamite group of coaches, players and parents who are active in the club. You can read more about SCSC here.
Here’s a picture of my wife Meg with my daughter and nieces– the September Birthday girls:
Below is a picture of me taken July, 2004 that was one of my favorite days of my life. The night before this picture was taken, my 14 year old son and I had pitched a tent in the dark on top of a French Alp called Col de la Madeleine because we planned to watch our hero, Lance Armstrong, race to the top of the mountain the next day in the Tour De France (by now, you know I am a huge bike racing fan, right?). We awoke to the sound of buzzing flies and discovered that we had pitched our tent in the middle of a very well-used (and smelly) cow pasture. Needless to say, we quickly abandoned the field and made friends with a generous German couple who kindly shared their icy cold beer so all was well!!
My Dad was a very hard-working, self-employed plumber who taught by example that there was great value in attention to detail, good manners and a strong work ethic. Because he ran his own business and because of his devotion to his regular customers, my Dad was uneasy being away from home (and his customers) for too long. Because of this, long-distance travel was out of the question. Maybe as a result, I love traveling to distant places and experiencing cultures very different from our own. Like my Dad, in a week to ten days I am itching to get back “home” but I have really enjoyed traveling with my kids over the years. I hope by exposing them to other cultures they will learn what a truly diverse place the world is and they will appreciate just how fortunate we are in the United States.
Our next big trip is a trip to England with my son’s travel soccer team, the SCSC Hurricanes. Just imagine 18 seventeen year old soccer fanatics touring the English countryside visiting some of the classic soccer stadiums and taking in some of the best soccer in the world. Should be priceless…..
