Acceptance Is: All In The Family

Dad (Dan) and Mom (Terry) are both retired from the Air Force and are descendants of proud military veterans who instilled a sense of duty and service that Terry and Dan have passed on to their own children.

Jackie, the oldest, modeled service first, helping to run the household when Mom or Dad was deployed and always lending an ear or a hand to her siblings. She is now serving her country, having just graduated from Air Force pilot training.

Daniel won the Heisman High School Scholarship in 2016 and just graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Kentucky where he also captained the Men’s Swim Team and completed Air Force ROTC. Headed to the US Olympic Trials for swimming, he has mentored others and volunteered in veterans’ organizations like Heroes on the Water.

Tori, who won the Heisman High School Scholarship in 2019, is a freshman swimmer at the University of Kentucky and recently won the Athletic Department’s CATPSY Community Service Award for working with children. In high school, she created a mental health awareness program, “Vikings Take 5 to Save Lives” after losing a classmate to suicide.

2020 Heisman High School Scholarship winner Caroline “Colby” Orcutt says that moving around as a military kid was often difficult, and it usually meant that the Orcutts needed to turn to each other for friendship in new situations. She saw the isolation of students new to her school and founded the Viking Welcome Program to help new students make friends and learn their way around, even creating a virtual campus tour when schools went remote.

Dan and Terry say one way to raise great kids is to make sure they’re ‘too busy for trouble’ – but what’s clear is that their example has helped their children learn that service is its own reward.

Take The Acceptance Pledge here and share your service activities with us using the hashtag #pledgeacceptance. Maybe you’ll be the next subject of an ‘Acceptance Is’ article.

A tradition of service through faith and duty informs the values (and actions!) of the Orcutt Family