An Event That’s Hard to Top

Posted by Gabe on October 24, 2010 under KAH Day 2010, Kids are Heroes | 4 Comments to Read

As expected, Kids Are Heroes Day flew by like a bird in front of a window and now it’s over.  It has left me with so many images and memories of wonder, fun, laughter and inspiration.  Our neighbor Danielle Grace started the day off with a wonderful a capella rendition of our national anthem. In honor of our hero Diana Onyonyi and her chaperon Joan Oburu who flew all the way from Nairobi, Kenya to be here, we followed our anthem with the Kenyan national anthem.  Christina Stenbrenner, marketing director of the FSK Mall, enlisted her dad’s help as DJ to keep things going in between events.  What a setup he had with two video monitors, flashing lights and all the right music to keep the crowd excited throughout the day.  The Oakdale Singing Owls, a choir of students from Oakdale Elementary School, graced us with two adorable songs about making a difference.  Young Jordan Brown delivered a speech about his efforts to help raise money to erect a statue for Major Dick Winters, who was a WWII veteran of D-Day.  Jordan is passionate about not letting us forget about this war, because as he puts it it was a war that could have ended up in the takeover of our country by another.  Nicholas Giordano thrilled everyone with his classical guitar rendition of two songs, including “You’ve Got a Friend” by James Taylor.  At 11:30 Diana Onyonyi from Kenya gave her speech entitled “Peace is Possible”.  That was followed by Levar Fisher (ex-Arizona Cardinal) and William Green (ex-Cleveland Brown) whose speech and demonstrations both moved and highly entertained all who witnessed it.

At 1PM adult heroes Gary Compher, Staff Sgt Robert Guerra, Tracy Vagrin and Frederick County Commissioner Vice President David Gray were on hand to deliver the county proclamations to all of our heroes in attendance: Adele Taylor, Jacob Krause, Emma Franceschina, John Sun, Calista and Austin Pierce, Jordan Brown, Riley and Jack Necessary, Kennedy Kulish, Diana Onyonyi, Nicholas Giordano, Felicia Clements, Casey Landahl, Evan Frank, Tana and Jack McKinsey, Connor and Hannah Hawkins, Amanda and Alison Keelan, Hannah Colvin and MaryMargaret O’Neill.  This was followed by a special presentation of awards given by the Discovery Girl Magazine, as three of our heroes, Calista Pierce, Kennedy Kulish and MaryMargaret O’Neill recently won a role model contest and will be featured in an upcoming issue of the international magazine.  At 2PM MaryMargaret O’Neill delivered her speech about kids who bully others trying to do good things which was followed by a video she wrote, directed and produced about her Black to Blue project, which aims to save animals devastated by the gulf oil spill.  That was followed by Adele Taylor as she showed off her lyrical dancing skills to the delight of the crowd.  Jacob Krause then voiced a very poignant account about how his condition of ulcerative colitis has affected him personally and how he has raised thousands of dollars for Chrohns/Colitis research.  Kennedy Kulish spoke about her “garden of good”; as you plant seeds of different acts of goodness you are then able to watch them grow.  Evan Frank demonstrated a well in Africa powered by children playing, and showed us what the dirty water (that some people in South Africa must drink) really looks like.  The last presentation was a video of Diana Onyonyi’s press conference in Kenya where students too young to vote got together to help prevent the outbreak of violence at the impending election.

We were very lucky to have two photographers on hand doing pro bono work for us: Mary Kate McKenna (who took these photos) and Kelsey Felice Shupe.  We are so grateful to these young talented professionals.  You will certainly see quite a few amazing photos of the day in the coming weeks.  I was able to film Diana’s and Levar’s speeches, albeit quite unprofessionally, but nonetheless you will get to see how outstanding they were as soon as I get them produced.

We were also fortunate to have met Leslie from EmbroidMe Frederick who donated Kids Are Heroes T-Shirts to each of our 25 heroes.  Jacob is seen wearing one at the top of the post.

The event was capped off with a reception at the Holiday Inn FSK in the courtyard/pool area.  Maureen Chamberlain, director of catering, put on a wonderful spread and believe me when I tell you she and her staff went above and beyond the call of duty.  My wife doesn’t just throw a party, she puts on an event.  This year’s theme was international thanks to Diana’s attendance and MaryMargaret’s creativity, so the room was decorated with flags from other countries, little globe beach balls and balloons, and in keeping with the Kids Are Heroes at the mall theme, Christina supplied us with fountain coin posters from the last three years which were added as wall decorations.  MaryMargaret and Diana were in charge of the “Welcome Heroes” posters and Diana’s chaperon Joan stepped up to help with the cookie decorations as well.  As I predicted even though the reception was scheduled for 6-8PM, we didn’t leave until after 10PM as the kids were still having fun in the pool together.

As I look back I regret that I did not get sit down and speak to each family enough, but sincerely hope all felt welcomed. I honestly don’t know at this point how we are going to make next year’s event better.  This year I did not sit at the Kids Are Heroes table once because I did not want to miss a single thing.  This was definitely worth it as images and events of the day continue to appear in my thoughts.  Seeing all these children together and witnessing first hand their commitment and passion to their causes inevitably fills you with inspiration and hope which is the fuel that makes you want to to walk down their paths.

In closing I would like to formally thank Christina Steinbrenner, Levar Fisher, William Green, Maureen Chamberlain, Mary Kate McKenna, Kelsey Felice Shupe, Jessica Fitzwater, David Shafer, Stacie Lemick, Daniel Mullins, Leslie Simensen and all the heroes and their families who came out to celebrate with us. I would also like to thank Tracy Vagrin, Gary Compher, Staff Sgt. Robert Guerra and Commissioner David Gray for their leadership, community service and assistance with this great day.

I must also say that the presence of Diana Onyonyi and her chaperon Joan Oburu from Nairobi as they were guests at our house for the entire week will be something we will never forget.  MaryMargaret and Diana were inseparable and it really gave us a sense of culture from a foreign country.  We were graced with their polished manners, their commitment to pitching in no matter how tired they felt and their overall fun companionship.  Truly if we all could do this with each other more often there would be far less strife around the world.

A special acknowledgment goes out to my wife, Michelle O’Neill, who worked tirelessly nonstop this past week on planning, “gophering”, decorating and hosting two wonderful Kenyans as our guests.  Her touch definitely makes us look good. :)  I must thank my sister Maureen O’Connor for driving here from Canada (as she has done for all three KAH Days) and my brother Greg, also from Canada, for joining her.  Not to mention my daughter MaryMargaret, for having the spirit to start this whole endeavor and for being, like all the other heroes, a great role model for other children.  Already we so look forward to next year.

UPDATE: Wow!! Mary Kate, who took the pictures of the first half of the day, has published her work already!! And you won’t believe the quality of these wonderful pictures!! They really capture the essence of how the first half of the day went.  You will really want to stop and take a few minutes to look at these photos.  At the end there are a few short videos, including a portion of Levar and William’s presentation, a snippet of the Oakdale Owls’ concert, and William breaks a bat over his knee without first raising it up!!

UPDATE: 10/26 –  Kelsey Felice Shupe of Felice Fotographic has also finished her pictures!! These are of the second half of the day and can be seen here!!