EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: “Relive Your Dream”

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Let’s face it, the older we get the harder it can get to be as active as we were in the younger years.
This week’s Extraordinary Person of the Week doesn’t live by those standards. Matter of fact, at the age of 80, Dick Secondo is running circles around some folks half his age. He wants others here in the Cape Fear to realize that age doesn’t have to be a number!

You are never too old to ‘relive your dream’.

“I think the secret to staying in good shape,” Dick Secondo told Daniel Seamans, “is because you want to be there and you say to yourself, ‘I know I can do it, I made up my mind.”

One of the first things you’ll notice about Dick Secondo is that he’s got pep. He’s also got step. And oh yeah…he’s 80.

“I just want to show that old people can get out there and do things that some people think you can’t,” Secondo said. “I think I can show some of these younsters that I can still do it.” Secondo smiles as he talks about wanting to just inspire folks of all ages. Mostly, though, he wants to inspire those in his own age bracket.

The former Marine found the Port City while at Camp Lejeune many moon ago. “I saw Wilmington,” Secondo said, “and said, wow, this is the place for me someday.”
Someday would eventually turn into more than two decades of ownership in the local restaurant business. Now he is retired and on a mission to lead by example.

He’s created a video titled “Relive Your Dream”, hoping it could catch someone’s eye and maybe turn into something bigger.

“You know, get some of these people that think they have forgotten their past completely,” he said, “and be like myself and say ‘maybe I can still hit a ball, can still box, or karate, this or that, and have someone sponsor it where they give them a chance, they don’t have to play a whole game.”

He wants everyone to do just enough to “Relive Your Dream”.

“I’ve had so many things(happen to me) but I just kept motivating myself, and finding a way to push through it, that’s what keeps you alive.”

Dick Secondo, that kind of combination is “Extraordinary”.

-Daniel

If you’d like to watch his video, “Relive Your Dream”, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buJitceC3yA