On May 29, 2013 at Eclipse Awards in Strathcona we unveiled The Awesome Awards - the world’s first living recognition program aimed at building stronger communities by celebrating the people that make them awesome. It was a magical ceremony - relaxed, fun, warm, humbling, emotional, joyous and inspiring! We came together to recognize 15 awesome humans - everyday heroes who are quietly determined to make the world a better place. There is only one way to win an Awesome Award and that is by being awesome. So it was an honour to celebrate these 15 amazing folks with the first Awesome Awards, wonderful folks with undeniable qualities that we would describe simply as “awesome”!
Frank Barazzuol • Kurt Heinrich • Tina Chin • Peter Wrinch • Tammy Tsang • Joji Kumagai • Carole Brown • Luglio Romero • Kathie Dawe • John Horn • Kali Dukouski • Mark Wilson
These awesome people are tireless community builders and became the first guardians of the original 15 Awesome Awards as their legendary journeys begin...we'll be sharing some of their stories in the days ahead!
The beauty of a great recognition event is that everyone leaves feeling enriched and inspired. It is certainly transformational for the awardee, not only because they feel valued and appreciated by their community, but also because it can help them understand their value to the community. It clarifies how they are perceived by their community and inspires them to step into that role to contribute more to that community. At our ceremony, each Awesome Award was presented by the person that nominated them, so there was a great deal of respect and admiration in each award presentation.
It’s also inspiring for those who are in attendance and witnessing the award presentations because the act of recognition is generous, heartwarming and reassuring. People learned stories about others in their community or in other communities - lots of awesome people met lots of amazing people.
The presenters can also be filled with emotion when they have an opportunity to openly express their appreciation for someone. As a society, we don’t create a lot of situations to do this. The secret of the Awesome Awards is that they create social situations that allows people to appreciate one another, and that is both powerful and transformational.
Together, these shared experiences offered a glimpse into the beauty of the human spirit: empowerment, inspiration, joy, connections, ideas, confidence, motivation, generosity, honor, reciprocity, love, happiness, camaraderie, fellowship - all were present at the inaugural ceremony of the Awesome Awards and all will create ripples building stronger, more resilient communities.
What makes the Awesome Awards a living recognition program is that each unique award is on a perpetual journey from person to person. Each Awesome Award recipient becomes responsible for selecting the next awesome recipient and then bestowing them with their award, and so on, and so on, and so on. Unfailingly, each Awesome Award must change hands every month, celebrating one awesome person after the other, seeding happiness and inspiration through community after community on their perpetual journeys to connect and transform. The tales from these journeys will be shared and recorded at www.theawesomeawards.org.
To all who attended the unveiling of the Awesome Awards, we salute you! To the 15 inaugural Awesome Award winners, we thank you for being awesome and for taking the Awesome Awards into the world! Can't wait to see where this goes! This is the legend of the Awesome Awards...