To the best of my recollection, I’ve only won one trophy in my entire life. This was in the Class B racquetball tournament at the Albany YMCA in 1989. And I won, in part, because I showed up to all of my matches. I think I was 12-4, and someone else was 8-1. The wins mattered.
I still have that trophy somewhere in this house, even though the racquet on the little statue broke off.
We all like to be recognized. It might have happened a few times to me, but I’m not recalling them. (Someone who knows me can correct me if I’m wrong.)
Libraries in the time of COVID
Anyway, the Albany Public Library nominated Jon Skinner and me for the Library Volunteer of the Year Award from the Upper Hudson Library System. For literally decades, the Friends of the Albany Public Library had been holding a nearly weekly in-person book talk at the Washington Avenue branch.
Jon, with Gene Damm and others, has been securing the speakers, even as the Friends and the APL Foundation merged. Then, of course, COVID-19. The library closed for a time, so the Tuesday speaker thing also stopped.
But as it became clear that this pandemic thing was going to hang around for a while, we recalibrated. Jon and Gene got speakers to agree to do the gig on ZOOM. Then we needed someone to MC this thing on the platform, mostly make sure it started and stopped on time, and that everyone who wanted to got to ask questions. Since I had been using ZOOM four or more times a week, I guess I volunteered.
Apparently, the UHLS appreciated our efforts. The annual awards will be presented as part of the UHLS (virtual) Annual Celebration on Wednesday, June 9 at 6:30 pm. We’re supposed to accept an award and make some brief remarks. I surely can do “brief.”