A night to honor stellar kids & a stellar man
It is the best night of And I was not there. Thursday night marked the annual Partners in Education Celebration gala. That’s the night when the editor of this newspaper usually gets to sit in a room with more than 600 people, all of whom are saying nice things about the newspaper. Unless you do what I do for a living, you have no idea how rare an occurrence that is.
It’s also the night when we honor this year’s All-Delco Hi-Q team, as well as this year’s winners of the Excellence in Education Awards.
Last Sunday and Monday we used a fair chunk of the newspaper to tell the stories of these 21 very special students, one to represent each high school team that took part in the nation’s oldest scholastic quiz competition, Hi-Q. We run photos of each All-Delco Hi-Q kid, who are selected by their teammates, along with information about them. We followed that package up Monday with the snapshots and bios of this year’s 19 very special educators who have been selected as the winners of the Excellence in Education awards.
I always get nervous on this weekend, wondering if some big news event would knock one of these packages off their position the year. as the lead story on our front page. Thankfully, this year went smoothly. I’m often asked if I think these two packages are necessarily the most important story in Delaware County. The obvious answer is no. So is my response: We’re going to do it anyhow.
It’s easy for their names in the Doing something wrong will usually do the trick. Showing another side is not so easy, and our involvement in Hi-Q does just that.
None of this, however, is the reason I was especially disappointed that I could not attend this year’s event. I was not the only one who was not there. Neither was John Unangst. Perhaps more than anyone else, Unangst, the longtime head of the Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union, was the driving force behind the increased focus on Hi-Q and the creation of the Partners in Education gala.
John passed away suddenly back in January.
When I heard the news, my mind immediately raced back to a meeting I held in my office back in 2006.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of Hi-Q, but the tournament got a much-needed financial boost when Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union signed on as the lead corporate sponsor in 2006.
That’s when John started planning what would become kids to get the Partners in Education Celebration. He wanted to do something special to note the accomplishments of the these young scholars. That’s when he called me. John said he and Harry Jamison, then the head of the Delaware County Intermediate Unit, had an idea they wanted to run by me. I was all ears. It turns out John and Harry were big fans of our All-Delco teams, the ones we put together after every high school sports season to honor outstanding achievement by young athletes. We do one for every high school sport.
Their idea? They wanted to borrow the idea and adapt it to academics.
Specifically, they were planning to align with Hi-Q, the nation’s oldest scholastic quiz competition, and wanted to create an All-Delco Hi-Q team.
They asked if I was interested.
I almost jumped across desk and hugged them.
It has always been one of my goals to honor kids who excel at academics. The Daily Times is rightly proud of our reputation as “Delaware County’s Sports Authority.”
I was in part prodded by my wife, who would always remind me that our coverage of athletes was nice, but why didn’t we do anything similar for kids who excel in the classroom? the
This was my chance, and jumped at it.
Every year since, we have presented the All-Delco Hi-Q team on our front page in the spring.
It’s been my good fortune to attend every year since it was established. I always tell people the same thing. It’s important to take note of kids who excel academically, and even more important to offer a more balanced view of the good things kids are doing. We certainly offer plenty when it comes to young people doing things they probably should not be doing.
After a few years, they added honors for the best teachers with the Excellence in Teaching Awards.
I don’t know how he did I it, but for the first Partners in Education dinner, John was able to get “Jeopardy” host Alex Trebek to act as emcee. Could there be a more perfect host? John followed that up the next year by reeling in “Jeopardy” king Ken Jennings.
I will be forever grateful for that visit more than a decade ago from John and Harry. John was always extremely proud of his alma mater, Interboro High School, and each year offered a college scholarship in his name to a deserving student.
Also honored Thursday night was Tom McCarthy, the longtime quizmaster of the of the Hi-Q tournament. Tom is hanging up his microphone after acting as host for 39 years.
Along with Rick Durante, also of Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union, I was supposed to take part in a special ceremony during which John was to be inducted posthumously into the Hi-Q Hall of Honor.
I wasn’t able to be there physically, but I assure you my heart was there.
You’ll always be in my book, John. Hall of Fame