Mark Cashin Classification speech

Members classification speeches are a great opportunity to get to know our fellow Rotarians.   Member Mark Cashin gave his classification speach this past Friday.  To say that Mark is a talented presenter would be an understatement.  His story moved us from tears to laughter, Mark has a gift for rising above adversity and maintaining a great sense of humour.  By age ten Mark had lost both his brother and his mother.  Clearly Mark was an intelligent and curious child who channeled these gifts into a great deal of mischief.  Utimately his father decided that Mark needed greater discipline and structure and enrolled him at the private boarding school St. Martins.  Mark described this as a pivotal time in his life.  He still managed to get into a fair amount of trouble but his activities tended towards entrepreneurial endeavors that landed him in hot water with the Dean of the school on more than one occassion.  Mark is a born entrepreneur who has pursued various business interested from childhood to present day.  Mark had a very successful catering company before switching careers to his current role; financing mortagages for a wide variety of clientele.  Mark told his story with much humor and we couldn't help but cheer for the little boy who had such a difficult start but never stopped looking forward.  He credited Rotary with helping focus his tremendous energy into positive areas; Mark has been a Rotarian for more than 20 years.  Mark was especially sweet when describing meeting his wife.  He knew immediately that this was the woman with whom he wanted to marry and raise a family.  They have two boys; if they are half as mischievous as Mark was as a boy they will never have a dull moment in the Cashin household!