Family of the Year Award Announced at Appreciation

The University of Arkansas at Monticello hosted over 600 people on Saturday for its Parent/Family Appreciation day. Festivities included entertainment, a tailgate cookout, a UAM football game and the announcement of the Family of the Year.

“This is an institution that believes strongly in the family spirit and that’s the reason why we have the parent family appreciation day,” Chancellor Jack Lassiter said during his welcome speech.

During the special presentation, Lassiter announced the winner of the Family of the Year award, which was a first in the events history since the recipient was not a blood relative to a current student.

Jeannie Gray wrote an essay nominating Mary Cathryne Flemister and the employees of the Nook for watching her child for free while she attends class. Gray said Flemister makes an excellent example of what UAM wants to see in creating a family atmosphere.

An excerpt of the winning essay:

Anyone who has children knows that placing your child in someone’s care is not always easy, yet with these caring individuals I know my son is in the best care. The whole Flemister family is involved with my son’s life even though we aren’t blood kin. They have on many occasions said, "just worry about your education and we’ll help take care of your son."

Members of the Parent/Family Appreciation Day committee chose the essay among many because of its unique outlook of the make-up of one's family.

“Family can mean a lot of things to a lot of people,” committee member and director of intramurals and recreation Julie Gentry said. “I think that is special about our Family Appreciation Day. It’s not just parents because the university realizes the definition of a family could include grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brother, cousins, nieces, nephews or in the case of Jeanie, a person she use to work for.”

The Parent/Family committee consists of Gentry, Betty Matthews, Terri Richardson, Laura Hughes, Tawana Greene, Mitch Meredith and Vice Chancellor Clay Brown with the help of the Student Activities program. On top of choosing the Family of the Year, the committee oversaw the activities throughout the day with various campus organizations helping.

Brad Sears of Tau Kappa Epsilon helped with registration outside of the John F. Gibson University Center. Sears said the registration helped gather information like home state, hometown and numbers of family members in attendance.

“It helps get an idea of the diversity of students here at UAM,” Sears said.

The families received free passes to the football game and the chancellor’s tailgate cookout for registration. Gentry said Parent/Family Appreciation Day gives some families the only opportunity to take the whole family to a home football game.

“One family had I think 17 members,” Gentry said. “It was because they were related to a football player and it was the only way they could bring that many to a football game.

Photo by Kevin Sims

Getting an I.D. — Haley Lorings, a relative of first year student Lauren Wright, shows mom the ink on her fingers. The child identification booth weighed, measured and finger printed children for the parents benefit in case an emergency happens.

“I heard the karma in the stands. I heard many people just say ‘man the crowd is really into this game.’ I think a lot of it has to do is it was family members and they feel more connected.”

Before the special program, which included a welcome from the chancellor and the Family of the Year presentation, students ran booths offering photo buttons and child identification kits.

Gentry said the families enjoyed the photo buttons and over 100 buttons were given away. It took three people to run the booth, but despite the demand and long line, people went through line in under five minutes.

“It was hectic to organize, but it worked out,” Kyndall Carder, a student worker at the booth, said.

At the chancellor’s tailgate, student workers served hamburgers, hot dogs and grilled chicken along with a selection of desserts all cooked by the cafeteria staff. Over 600 people not including students attended the tail gate cookout.

During the tailgate, Neon Entertainment ran an air-brushing booth and inflatable slide for the visitors to enjoy. The football team also treated the families to the Walk of Champions, where the cheerleaders, band and football players march down the road along Weevil Pond to the Steelman Fieldhouse.

Gentry said she felt like the event was successful and although it did not have any new features, the event was finer tuned than in previous years. She said a couple of budgets go into putting on an event like this, Student Activities program paying for the entertainer for one, but keeping the event free for students’ families helps boost moral despite the high cost of attending a four-year institution.

“There is no cost for anything today but I know one parent said ‘yeah, we already paid enough already,” Lassiter joked.