Tonight was perhaps one of the most inspiring and electrifying nights of my life. I never thought the relay would lead to something quite this spectacular, but I can honestly say the late nights, the seemingly endless running, and the physical and mental drain on my body that was the majority of the 2007-2008 school year has been utterly worth it.
Tonight, the Never Ignore, Never Forget relay team received the SuAnne Big Crow Memorial Award at the National Education Association’s conference in sunny San Diego. This incredible privilege was breathtaking.
The day started fairly normal for our few days here in San Diego. We woke up around 9 a.m. from a fitting night of sleep in our hotel room and almost immediately began to get ready for our 11:30 practice lunch at the San Diego Convention Center. After a filling lunch during which we met the Human and Civil Rights Committee for the NEA as well as the award recipients in the other categories, we went to the ballroom for a practice rehearsal.
I had my roughly one minute speech nicely folded in my pocket ready to pull it out when my turn to speak arrived, but, instead, I had the joy of using a teleprompter (recently made famous by Barack Obama’s abundant use of them) for my speech. At first, the experience was a little strange, but I’ve decided I could easily get used to it. This event, simply a practice, was amazing alone, but it was nothing compared to the festivities that would greet us that night.
After taking a couple of hours to swim and generally relax after the lunch, we prepared for the main event: the NEA’s Human and Civil Rights Award Dinner. We had to arrive about an hour and a half before the event to mix and mingle with other award winners and members of the NEA’s board. Following this, Darham and I were ushered into the ballroom with the rest of the recipients to be announced as honored guests and, I must say, the spotlights were blinding.
The next couple of hours was filled with amazing food (salad, chicken with mushroom, shrimp, a mixture of vegetables, and excellent lemon cake), amazing conversation, and the sharing of amazing stories from the other recipients. The way this worked was each recipient had approximately a three minute video produced about him or her, was then marched on stage to applause, and were given (roughly) one minute for an acceptance speech. Every person was inspirational in his or her own way and each had a unique and amazing story to tell: from the mother whose son came out of the closet prompting her to advocate for fair treatment of homosexuals in schools to an 89 year old African American who marched with Martin Luther King Jr.
When it was my time to speak, I was a little overwhelmed. We were the last awardees, there were 2,500 teachers in the room each paying $75 for a seat, the previous recipients had all done something amazing and spoken eloquently about it, and I felt slightly out of my league.
Luckily, everything was flawless. The video that Jim Hristakos and his Broadcast Services team with the NEA expertly produced was stunning, I managed to get through my one minute (oh, no need to lie, I actually spoke for two minutes!) speech without fumbling words too much, and the standing ovation at the end was perhaps the best show of support the relay has ever encountered.
Without further adieu, here is a rough transcript from my speech tonight as well as our first public declaration of our intention to rerun the relay in 2010 from San Francisco to Washington DC:
I am honored to represent the Never Ignore, Never Forget relay and humbled to receive the SuAnne Big Crow Memorial Award.
All 9 runners from the relay team are with me today: Nathan Alexander, Aaron Gurley, Michael Gurley, Adam Heil, Jacob Heil, Adrian Love, Chris Parker, Kiet Tran, and myself. Also with us is our coach, Darham Rogers, who put up with us and all of our aches and pains for 1,300 miles and my two wonderful parents, Larry and Robbi Heck, who agreed to drive the vans throughout the trip and offered us constant support.
I wish I could thank every person that played a role in making this endeavor possible by name: those who donated money, those who donated time, or those who offered their advice and wisdom. Unfortunately, I can’t due to time constraints. So, instead, I’ll skim over a quick list:
The Genocide Intervention Network and STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition who sponsored the relay.
Davis Moore Auto Groups who sponsored a large part of the relay fiscally.
Our friends and family who contributed generously to help us raise $25,000.
Larry Landwreth, Paul Babich, and United Teachers of Wichita who both nominated us for this award and covered the cost of six of the team members being here.
And, perhaps most importantly, you, our teachers, who have inspired us, cared about us, and guided us along a path to a better future.
In 2010, we plan to run the Never Ignore, Never Forget relay again, but this time, cross the entire country from San Francisco to Washington D.C. This will be an extremely difficult task and span over 3,000 miles.
If you find our story inspiring, I ask you to visit NeverIgnore.org. Not only can you read day-by-day accounts of our 2008 run, but you can also find information on how to help us in 2010 and, hopefully, inspire students at your own schools to take similar stands for their beliefs.
So now, I want to challenge you: Take a risk. Try something new. Dare to change the world.
Thank you.
