To the Editor:

I am William D. Wilday and am throwing my slingshot into the political arena.

Running against any incumbent is a daunting task for any newcomer. My Goliath is the present assemblyman for Assembly District 111, Angelo Santabarbara. Angelo has been our assemblyman for awhile now. He is a good family man and a good person. He is a very young man, which makes me wish that he had more life experience.

At 70 years old, I have had a lot of life experience. I was born in Bellevue Maternity in Schenectady on Feb. 26, 1948. Much of my preschool youth was spent between Cleveland, Ohio and Schenectady as my parents divorced. Pretty much uneventful.

We finally settled in Schenectady while my mother, as a single parent, raised two kids while working for General Electric. She married Howard Wilday who adopted my brother and I.

Howard owned a dairy farm in Porter Corners. I spent most of my youth milking cows and slopping hogs. I can relate the farmers in District 111. Can the other two candidates?

I graduated from Niskayuna High in 1967. I went to Chadron State College in Nebraska, a couple of community colleges, and graduated from Schenectady County Community College with an associate’s degree in culinary arts. The Culinary Arts degree took me six years to complete as I went to night classes.

I joined the Marine Corps in 1968. I spent almost a year in Vietnam mostly around DaNang. I was awarded two Purple Hearts and a the Navy Commendation Medal for Valor. I  survived a land mine that ended my Marine Corps career.

My first job out of Vietnam was a meat cutter for Grand Union in Stuyvesant Plaza. I worked for several stores but the most important was IGA Star Super in Guilderland at routes 20 and 155. There I met my future wife, Linda. We have been married 46 years now.

About 40 years ago, we bought a home in Rotterdam and we still live there. Our kids, Todd and Marcy, both went through the Schalmont school system. Todd lives in Texas and is doing well. Marcy lives in Rotterdam and is doing well also. We have two grandkids, Katina and Adrianna.

In between work, I was able to enjoy skydiving and scuba diving; played softball; went camping,  backpacking, hiking, and shooting; and was a Boy Scout leader for many years.

Today, I am still a part-time meat cutter for BJ’s in Rotterdam. I am involved in the biker community. We are heavily involved in community theater. I take acting classes in Troy. I’ve made appearances in several films and three commercials and I am on some billboards in the Capital District.

This is a partial list of my life experiences. There is a fuller but not totally full list at www.cpofny.us.

I am running for the State Assembly to try to make things better in the district but most importantly I want to be your representative. As an average hardworking man with tremendous life experiences I will work with you as your representative to get things done.

As Trey Gowdy said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “If you want to change how government works, you have to change the people you send there.”

William D. Wilday

Schenectady