Cleveland-Caldwell Advancement of
the Sport 2000
David Yon
Presented
by Karl Hempel
When
I decided to write this award presentation, I couldn’t remember what award
this individual was getting. Mackie
and I were going through the various awards categories and I realized he
qualified for almost all of them. Could
it be the Community Award? Or the
race director award? What about
Hall of Fame or the Runner of the year? Oh
yeah, he won the marathon in 2001. I
had to lookup an old e-mail to realize it was for advancement of the sport.
This
award is given in recognition for advancement of the sport of running whether
through research, education or other areas of expertise.
Well
he certainly qualifies for this award. This
member has taking time from his busy practice of law to do about anything and
everything to promote running and the GWTC.
For example:
- Serving
as president, which in itself is a challenging, and time consuming chore.
Needless to say he met the challenge and has played a major part in
producing what many of us feel is one of the best track clubs in the
country.
- Directs
the Turkey Trot along with Mary Jean.
- Coaching
Belleview Middle school cross country.
For a while I thought he might quit his law practice and coach full
time. He also is frequently
seen at the High school cross-country meets.
- Has
been very active in supporting and promoting the Chenowith fund. Directs the fundraiser at Forest Meadows.
- Writing
columns for website. The
Catbird’s seat has always been creative and entertaining.
I particularly enjoyed the column about “This Bud’s for you.”
- Getting
results of races in a timely fashion. He
spent numerous hours compiling results.
- Olympics:
Staying up to 3 a.m. writing columns about the Olympics.
- He
has probably donated more hours than anybody (except his beautiful wife M.J
who deserves part of this award.)
- You
might ask how could he be such a successful high-powered lawyer and
accomplish this? Hint-look at
the time on some of his e-mails. He needs no sleep. I suspect he is an
alien.
- I
had better stop here. If I
continue with praises, his may think he is invincible and try and talk me
into skiing the quadruple black diamond where a parachute is the most
important peace of equipment.
I am proud and honored to present this award to
my good buddy, David Yon.