EDITOR,

It was a sad day last week when Council member Steve Abercrombie announced he would not be running for re-election this year. Most Tracyites know that Steve is the champion of support for nonprofit organizations such as D.A.R.E., Brighter Christmas, Good Sam of Tracy, Building Together Today, Habitat for Humanity and more. What most people don’t see is the humanitarian council member that I know. 

Over the past six years, I have had an opportunity to work with Steve on various volunteer and nonprofit organizations and projects. Without citing people’s names and addresses, I have seen Steve step up and help members of our community who were on the verge of losing homes, being treated unfairly by greedy landlords, parents of seriously ill children, families who were undergoing serious financial trouble, and more. Steve treats the community and the people he serves like the true Christian that he is. 

On any given day of the week, when he’s not teaching children how to avoid drug and alcohol abuse, he can be found raising money to help the sick or the poor, or attending a board meeting of one of the many nonprofit organizations he serves, or coaching a baseball team, or organizing a work crew and materials to build a wheelchair ramp for a man dying of ALS so he and his wife could get around better in his final days. 

Then throw in his responsibilities as a council member meeting twice a month for regular meetings, and who knows how often working on a sub-committee or attending a closed-session meeting. 

I have often wondered how this guy managed to get any sleep time in — and if you’ve ever met his children, they are carbon copies of him when it comes to volunteering, community service and being just really good people in our community. 

When Steve Abercrombie steps down from the dais at City Council, the citizens of Tracy will be losing the finest councilman they have ever had.