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December 2, 2012

Princeton businessman offers inspirational message to community

By MATT CHRISTIAN Princeton Times

PRINCETON — Entering Thorn Street from the Athens Crossroads, the first thing many Princeton residents notice is the inspirational message on the yellow sign in front of The Sign Shop.

Sign Shop Owner Gerald Otey feels privileged that so many people notice his sign. In a fast paced world, he's glad that his sign catches people's attention. He says that was his goal in putting the sign in front of his business over 20 years ago.

“I put it there to give people inspiration,” Otey says on a busy Thursday morning. “I feel privileged that the Lord has given me something that people pay attention to.”

His eyes light up explaining that he goes to a local grocery store to find people asking about his sign. As long as people are giving him positive feedback, Otey will leave the message on the sign.

So far, his record has been about two months. Otey says he doesn't remember what the message said but that people kept calling and giving him feedback. Typically, he'll change the sign twice a month.

Sheepishly, he talks about another kind of feedback. Occasionally, when the message goes on the sign, a word gets misspelled. Making a mistake that a lot of people see is embarrassing.

Not that he doesn't have help misspelling words sometimes. Around 10 to 12 times over the years, people walking along the street have taken it upon themselves to change the message on the sign.

•••

Usually, the sayings that end up greeting passersby begin at Otey's church. As a  Christian, he'll hear a message that he really likes.

He or his wife will write down the message. A few days later, they'll walk out to the sign and change the message. However, church is not the only place Otey has gotten a message that he wanted to put on his sign. One time, he was on vacation and noticed another sign and wanted to bring that message back to Princeton.

Never once has he placed an advertisement for his business on the sign. He put the sign and the message there to inspire people and to tell them what he believes to be the truth about the world.

“We get lied to so much,” Otey said. “This is one way of getting the truth out there.”

Another motivation is that Otey seems to want people to begin to question the official messages found in government statistics. He says that it's been repeated over and over again that ObamaCare would not change Medicare. He saw this morning that people would have to wait an additional five years to be MediCare eligible.

— Contact Matt Christian at mchristian@ptonline.net.

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