Student recognized in honour of Turnbull
The award was named after tenacious former Star writer
Julianna Romanyk’s obsession with comedy began at a young age, when she would watch Just for Laughs, despite not understanding most, if any, of the jokes.
“Only when I was15 and I happened to meet the chief operating officer of Just for Laughs after a comedy show did I realize, ‘Oh, there’s actually people that can do this for a living,’ ” said Romanyk, 19, a first-year student studying media production at Ryerson University.
“I immediately went home that night and went to my mom and said, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ Absolutely. No doubt.”
The aspiring comedy producer was awarded the Barbara Turnbull Award on Monday, an honour named after the Toronto Star reporter who was an activist for people with disabilities and known for her own perseverance and positivity. Romanyk, who was born with a congenital birth defect, said she admired Turnbull’s resilience after learning about the well-known journalist.
Turnbull was shot in 1983, then just 18, during a robbery in the Mississauga convenience store where she worked.
The bullet severed her spinal cord, leaving her quadriplegic.
“But life goes on,” wrote Turnbull, in a StarDispatches ebook, published in 2013.
Turnbull went on to accomplish many extraordinary things: she graduated from Arizona State University’s journalism program, where she was valedictorian, a few years after she was shot; she spent decades writing for the Star and became a champion for people with disabilities.
Turnbull died last May of complications related to pneumonia.
The award in her name was set up by a group of colleagues at the Star and is given to a student with a disability who exemplifies characteristics Turnbull exemplified, including tenacity, perseverance, and positivity.
“We just thought that we needed to remember her exemplary life and provide an opportunity for others with disabilities and give them an opportunity to shine the way Barb did,” said her colleague Leslie Scrivener, who sat beside Turnbull for many years at the Star.
Romanyk, who has interned at Just for Laughs, said she was grateful to be recognized in Turnbull’s honour.
“When I read the description of her, I thought, ‘This is so much like me.’ Her love of writing. And I want to be unstoppable,” Romanyk said.
“She embodied the person everybody wants to know and love and makes a difference in the world.”