Maura Sammon was just a little girl when then-presidential candidate Jimmy Carter visited the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport in 1976.
She was there alongside her grandparents and a crowd of campaign supporters.
“My grandparents wanted to introduce me to the American political system,” Sammon recalled. “He was there kissing babies, picking up kids and he picked me up. Some local photographer took a photograph.”
Little did any of them know how profound that moment would be for Sammon and her future, writes Josh Sanders for CBS News Philadelphia.
That photograph ended up being used in Carter’s presidential campaign, transforming into one of the defining images of the 1976 presidential race.
Sammon, who now works as an emergency medicine specialist at Temple Health, crediting that chance meeting with Carter for inspiring her to make a difference globally.
She learned from Carter that you could be a citizen of the world and really try to make the world a better place.
That has been her mindset as she has done work in Cambodia, Iraq, Sierra Leone, India, Ukraine, and Mexico.
With Carter’s passing, Sammon looks back on his life with gratitude.
“He’s the reason that I’ve been able to do what I’ve done,” she said.
Read more about how Jimmy Carter helped change a local physician’s life in CBS News Philadelphia.
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