Transcript of Becca Shevlin Toole’s speech at the Kiwanis scholarship presentations
Good morning.
First, thank you to the Pine Island Kiwanis Club for inviting me to be here today. It is an honor to stand before a group that has spent decades investing in this community and in the young people who call it home.
And to the scholarship recipients and your families, congratulations. This is a wonderful accomplishment, and you should be proud of everything that brought you to this moment.
Standing here this morning feels a little surreal because years ago, I was sitting exactly where you are.
I grew up right here on Pine Island.
For 18 years, home was off Pineland Road. My family was spread across the island. My Aunt Jane lived on Aubrey Road. My Aunt Toni lived on Serenity Road. My Mimi lived near Alden Pines, where one of her neighbors was known for chasing alligators away with a kitchen broom.
Like a lot of Pine Island kids, I spent most of my childhood outside. My siblings, cousins and I caught lizards, climbed trees, swam in the public pool and rode around in my dad’s blue Harley-Davidson golf cart. We drove it to my Mimi’s house so often it’s probably where I learned how to drive.
At the time, it all felt normal.
It was just life.
Only later did I realize how special it was.
My brother and I rode our bikes to the marina after school and spent our money at the Grab Bag. One summer, I decided I was going to become a business owner and sold mangoes from a stand in our front yard. The business ended abruptly when I discovered I was allergic to mango sap and found myself covered in hives at Dr. Mauny’s office.
Sunday mornings were spent at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, where my parents taught Sunday school and where I sang in the choir led by Carol Keiling. She had the best rendition of “This Little Light of Mine.” Summers meant walking in the Fourth of July parade with Pine Island Dance. Family dinners meant Shirley Temples and Gabby Krabbys at the Matlacha Oyster House, where my granddad let me sign his name on the receipt because he knew it made me feel important.
And whenever my friends complained about having to drive all the way to Pine Island for one of my birthday parties, they usually changed their minds by the end of the day. It turns out climbing trees, swimming, exploring and running around outside until sunset is pretty hard to beat.
In the evenings, my dad would carry me on his shoulders through our backyard while we searched for shooting stars and picked Florida strawberries and Surinam cherries straight from the trees.
Today, those same fruit trees grow in my own backyard because my dad planted them there for my daughters.
When I was younger, I thought Pine Island was special because of the places. The trees, the marinas, the roads, the water and all the freedom that came with growing up here.
And it is. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized it was special because of the people, too.
The people who knew your family. The people who celebrated your successes and showed up when you needed them. People like Father Pat. Local business owners who became family friends. Neighbors who shared dinners, holidays and playdates. The kind of community where you didn’t just know your friends, you knew their parents, their siblings and their grandparents, too.
Somewhere along the way, the people around us became part of our extended family.
People like the ones sitting in this room today. And in many ways, that’s what this scholarship is really about.
When I graduated from high school, I received a Pine Island Kiwanis scholarship. The money helped me buy textbooks during my freshman year at UCF, and for that I was incredibly grateful.
But years later, what I remember most isn’t the money. What I remember is what it represented.
It was a community looking at a young person and saying, “We believe in you.”
That’s exactly what’s happening here this morning. The people in this room believe in you. And many of them have believed in generations of Pine Island students before you.
And I don’t think any of them expect you to have your entire future figured out today. I certainly didn’t.
If you had asked me at 18 what I was going to do with my life, I never would have said, “I’m going to be a professor.” What I did know was that I loved stories. I loved listening to people tell them. I loved reading about different communities and the people who shaped them. I was curious about the world and the people in it.
Looking back, those interests were quietly shaping my future long before I realized it.
I eventually became a creative writing major with a minor in literature, and today I teach English and creative writing at Valencia College in Orlando, FL.
While I was in college, I came across a quote by the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe that has stayed with me ever since: “I was given this voice, and I intend to use it.”
At first, I loved it because I wanted to be a writer. But over time, it came to mean something much more.
Because every person in this room has been given a voice, and the world needs it. Not just a voice that speaks, but a voice shaped by your experiences, your values, your memories and your perspective.
For me, Pine Island is part of my voice.
It’s in the stories I tell. It’s in the values I carry.
It’s in the way I teach my students. It’s in the way I raise my daughters.
And it will always be part of who I am. The same is true for you.
Whether you stay close to home or travel far from it, the people and places that shaped you will remain part of your story.
As you begin whatever comes next, my hope is that you discover what matters to you and have the courage to use your voice in service of something bigger than yourself.
Use it to solve problems. Use it to build something meaningful.
Use it to help people. Use it to create opportunities. Use it to make your community stronger.
The Kiwanis Club has invested in you.
Your families have invested in you. Your teachers, coaches, neighbors, and mentors have invested in you.
Today is a celebration of that investment.
But it is also a reminder of the responsibility that comes with it.
Invest in yourself. Invest in your future. And one day, invest in someone else.
Because that’s how communities like Pine Island endure.
One generation believes in the next. One generation opens doors for the next.
And then that generation chooses to do the same. Congratulations to each of you.
We are proud of you. We believe in you. And we can’t wait to see how you use your voice.