Nearly three years ago, I attended the first of The Beloved Community fundraisers given by Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, a group I truly admire. They were unveiling and selling a gorgeous new art tile, just completed by the newly-resurrected Rookwood Pottery. The numbered and limited edition tile represented so many reminders of that old and beautiful neighborhood and was a lovely blue-green. It was also $150. So I didn’t buy one.
Last fall, I was in Canton at the Ohio CDC Association annual conference. They were having a raffle – and one of the many prizes was one of those wonderful tiles. I won three different items on Wednesday evening, and six on Thursday. I won almost everything given away. But not that tile.
Then, at our CDC Association of Greater Cincinnati annual Awards Celebration a couple of weeks ago, it finally came home to me. My wonderful Board members, having heard the story of the non-winning in Canton, presented me with one of the tiles. Wow! Made me so happy. And I was so surprised and amazed. It really made my heart happy.
p.s. That’s what I get for teaching people how to pull off surprises. They really learned well! : >