Communities have long understood that leadership does not sustain itself. It has to be cultivated deliberately, one generation after the next. In 1962, a plane crash at Orly Airport in France took the lives of more than 100 members of Atlanta’s civic and cultural community. The loss showed how much a city can depend on a small group of people, and why it matters to prepare more people to step forward, and into leadership roles in a community. Out of tragedy, a movement of Leadership programs slowly started to emerge throughout the country with one guiding principle: to create a succession for leadership in their community. Early leadership programs were Leadership Philadelphia, Leadership Atlanta, and Leadership Savannah. Today, more than a thousand community leadership programs operate across the United States. Canton became part of that story in 1985, as Leadership Canton. The program later became Leadership Stark County as it's reach expanded across the county. What began as one annual class has grown into a family of programs serving high school students, young professionals, and experienced leaders. Nearly four decades later, the purpose remains the same: prepare people to lead, connect them to their community, and help them make a lasting difference.