Saturday, June 5, 2010

My Induction Into SPRINGFIELD HIGH SCHOOL'S "ARTS HALL OF FAME"!

Back in February, I received a letter that I was to be inducted into Springfield High School's Arts Hall of Fame! I had graduated from the school in 1989 and now was being honored, among others, for the work that I've been doing since I graduated and for the giving back that I've done in the community over the years for the local schools and libraries. I thought that it was a nice honor after I read the letter, but I later found out how big a deal it really was since this was the 1st inaugural induction for the Arts Hall of Fame and that all of the past 75 years of the school's history were looked over to find the right mix of people for this inaugural induction. Out of the thousands of students, faculty and teachers, that had been there over the course of decades, only 21 total people were picked to be inducted. It was 14 students and 7 faculty members that ranged from the 1950s to around the mid-90s. There were only two that were picked for the graphics section and I was one of them! So it became a greater thrill as I knew more. The odds of being picked were the odds of getting on American Idol or winning the lottery.

On May 27th, the event was held in Springfield High School's LMC at 1pm. It was also the day after "Celebration of the Arts", which is held every year, so the school's hallways were packed with artwork and sculptures and the gym was packed with all the wood-working projects that students had done. These pics are from the event that I or family had taken. These first two pics are of my certificate that I was given after my name was announced and I went up to accept it and said a few words. It's about twice the size of my High School Diploma!

You also get a wall plaque as well that will hang in the Arts Hall of Fame display. After you said a few words after accepting the award, you got your picture taken and that would be inserted later, but I took a pic of it as it was.

And at the end of the awards, we were also presented with an engraved wall plaque that will hang outside the school somewhere that had all the inductee's names on it. This was really quite cool and my father seemed to like this the best. It was sitting on a table there but for this photo I had photoshopped a wall background behind it just to give an idea of what it might look like hanging up on display on a wall. Not sure where it will go though in the school. I'll go back and take a picture once it's mounted. They have several athletic ones hanging up next to the football field in the back but this is the first one for the arts. I can now go there and look at it and say, "Hey, that's me!"

Here is the cougar in the lobby that you see as you walk in the main front door.

Here is the cougar on display in the LMC where the awards were being held.

The cake that we had for dessert.

People arriving...

The certificates and wall plaques were neatly laid out...
The program that was handed out and it had all the inductee's bios in it.
The luncheon started at 12 noon.


At 1pm, the induction ceremony started with Stanley Johnson giving the greeting.

Bios was read and the award was given out by one of these three men: Mr. David Ash, Mr. Robert Preston and George Trout, Jr. They run the main arts section of the school and were on the commitee.

They went alphabetically so it took some time to get to the N's, but when they got to me, Mr. Preston had introduced me and presented me with my certificate! He was my graphic arts teacher so it was special to have it present it to me all these years later.


I went up and said a few words...and told some funny stories...


After the awards were over, my mother took a pic of me with the outside wall engraved plaque. She also had a hard time with my camera it seems since she cropped the picture wrong and my forehead got cut out. My father was taking better pics thankfully...


This was the group shot taken for the local papers of all 21 inductees!

My graphic arts teacher, Mr. Robert Preston, and myself after the awards.

A pic of my father and myself. My mother did better with this picture!

My high school art teacher, Mrs. Wilson, was inducted that day as well! Their was a funny story about her that I told and I'll write that in a later post.

And finally, I gave Mrs. Wilson the drawing of Scooby that I drew in one of my drawing videos that I posted here as a memento!

So all in all, it was a great day and an honor to be inducted into the S.H.S. Arts Hall of Fame!

2 comments:

Bill White said...

Congrats, Scott! It's great when schools appreciate the arts. All most public schools pay attention to is athletics. I'm glad your alma mater was the exception.

David said...

Congratulations Scott!!!