The ceremony wasn't a banquet, as I thought it would be. There was a ceremony, hosted by Angela Pace and Chuck White, Public Affairs Director and Public Affairs Director Emeritus, respectively, of WBNS-TV, Channel 10. There were speeches by Ohio's First Lady, Frances Strickland, and Mayor Mike Coleman, and then they announced the five finalists. When Jacques saw video rolling, featuring interviews and a two- or three-minute vignette about the honorees' causes and activities, he knew he wasn't a finalist, because no camera crew or TV reporter had spoken to him.
We did get a free meal out of it, because there were finger foods and refreshments in the foyer outside the hall at the McCoy Center after the ceremony. I spoke with Chuck White briefly. Since Angela Pace had introduced him as "Mr. Tree," I told him about how Luci's Toy Shop had been my favorite children's program in my pre-school years, and how I didn't want to go to kindergarten because it would mean missing the show. (White was the puppeteer for the program, which ran on WBNS from 1960 to 1973. Mr. Tree was one of the characters.)
Luci's Toy Shop was also where my name was first broadcast on mass media. On my fourth birthday, Luci said happy birthday to me and all other kids born on April 29th.
Jacques made contact with other people, including his fellow nominees, about possibly joining forces for their respective causes. That, he said, made the award worth it, even if he is not in the running for the national award.
Jacques and me before leaving for New Albany
Jacques and Angela Pace
Angela Pace and me
I am seeing a pulmonologist on the 12th about the cough that has become as much a part of me lately as my beard. Each day I think that maybe I've overcome it, or it's improving, but then I take a deep breath and I'm brought back to reality. The chest X ray I had at Mount Carmel West turned up nothing, and neither codeine nor antibiotics have stopped it.
So we'll see.
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