Michael Trebesh for 33rd Michigan Senate

Dear Friend,

I would like to share with you a little of my background and the importance of my Christian faith in my life and how it will guide me as your State Senator.

There have been several influential teachings and influential people that have shaped my life. The teachings and example of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, have been the most influential.

In addition, I have been blessed with several character building individuals who have helped guide me. The most important being my mom and dad, my lovely wife, Mary Jo and most recently my gift from God, Courtney Lynn my one year old daughter.

Growing up on a mid-Michigan family farm in the 1950s, I thought mom and dad were strict and demanding. Looking back on my early family farm experience I know mom and dad did a great job with my brother, sister and I. My siblings and I have never been in trouble and we learned early on the importance of Christ’s word and to take our community responsibilities and neighborhood duties seriously.

Mom and dad were deeply religious and honest and taught us right from wrong. Mom taught by example. I remember vividly on three occasions where mom returned to a store after learning the clerk had given her too much change. This action on her part instilled in each of the three children the value of doing what is right rather than doing what is easy.

Because of mom’s teachings and example, I remember as an 8 year old receiving too much money from the bank. Discovering the error, I returned to the bank without anyone else knowing about it and returned the overage to the teller. It never entered my mind that I could keep quiet and pocket the excess. Doing so would have gone against everything I was taught in church and at home.

Dad was certain to get us up early every Sunday to attend church service. Even though we were a poor working class family dad always came up with the money for tuition so we could attend a church-focused school. My brother and I were altar servers and participated in church activities such as Christmas plays and Easter celebrations. Dad was a Church usher and I remember helping him and his fellow ushers count and record the Sunday collections after each service.

Dad and mom taught us respect for other people, our family, animals and our property. I remember dad buying us each a bicycle and informing us in no uncertain terms that the bicycle was the only one he would buy us and we could take care of it or let it go to disrepair.

Understanding responsibility and having a good example from mom and dad, we took good care of the bikes. The bike you see me campaigning on around the scores of towns and cities in the 33rd district is the bike dad gave me. I have since replaced the tires 3 or 4 times but other than that it is the original bike.

Growing up on the farm mom and dad assigned farm chores to each of us and we were instructed to complete the task before going off to play. We learned early the value of hard work, thrift and self-discipline. Neighbors would hire my brother and I for odd jobs and mom would require us to save half of any pay and we were then free to do what we wanted with the remainder. I thank mom for her wisdom and discipline. It was her influence that gave me the foundation for an accounting and finance career.

My mom taught us how to love and dad taught us how to work and accomplish what others would not dare. I would carry these characteristics on to college and my professional career. In college, as I had in high school, I continued to usher, volunteer for charitable activities and to give back through school involvement.

My commitment to the Lord and Savior has not faltered.

I remain committed to my community through the Knights of Columbus where I was elected Grand Knight, and last year my family and I were honored and humbled to be recognized as Family of the Year. In addition, the local Chamber of Commerce recognized me as volunteer of the year.

These recognitions and awards are not important.

What is important is serving my Lord and Savior and the mission of helping people. My success can be traced to a total commitment to my Lord and gaining the wisdom to understand his teaching and having the strength to follow his example.

I will remain committed to these principles too because I remember the Bible teaches: “What good does it do for a man to win the world but lose his soul?” This is the foundation for my life and I will remain committed to these principles as your State Senator.

Sincerely,

Michael Trebesh
State Senate candidate