Drive Safely Wayne

The letter below about Wayne Richards was penned by Frank VanderSloot and sent to Melaleuca employees on September 25, 2008. Wayne was such an important voice of the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration so it's shared with you here as well.

Dear Employees,

It is with a sad heart that I write this email. As most of you have heard, Wayne Richards, a close friend to Melaleuca passed away last weekend while vacationing in Hawaii with his family.  Wayne has been involved with Melaleuca for nearly 20 years. Wayne was the creator and the voice of the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration and many other community and Melaleuca events.  Wayne was also the public address announcer at Melaleuca’s Convention for many years. More than that, he was a close friend and a great example of a great, kind, and gentle person. Wayne was also the voice for KLCE radio morning show and was well known and loved by thousands in the community who knew him through that program.   

Many of us had the opportunity to work with Wayne and develop strong relationships with him through his involvement with us and the community and Wayne always did more than his fair share of work and settled for nothing less than excellence. Wayne’s concern was never with looking good, it was only with doing good, and that is one of the things that made Wayne so special.

Our hearts go out to Wayne’s family and friends. If you would like to pay your respects, information regarding these services can be found below.

[Note from Webmaster: You can now leave a comment to pay your respects on the KLCE Classy 97 Wayne Richards page.]

Whenever I had the opportunity to spend time with Wayne, I always left a better person. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to call Wayne my friend. We will never be able to replace Wayne, we can only hope to live up to his standard and build on the heritage he created.

You may have noticed signs around town and out in front of our home office that say “Drive safely, Wayne!”. Wayne saved the words “I Love You” for his family, and his way of telling others that he cared about them was to tell them to “Drive Safely”.

Drive safely, Wayne!

Frank L. VanderSloot

Chief Executive Officer

Melaleuca Inc.