These two Page One Award honorees make dramatic entrance on RiverCenter stage
In the 48 years of the Page One Awards, perhaps none of the more than 11,200 nominees have had a more dramatic entrance onto the stage than Tuesday’s arrival of Columbus High School senior Lauren Baker and Brookstone School history teacher Hunter Chapman.
The Page One Awards celebrate outstanding high school seniors and teachers in the Chattahoochee Valley for excellence in education and community service in 13 student categories and one teacher category.
Tuesday night, this year’s 219 nominees were honored in the Bill Heard Theatre at the RiverCenter of the Performing Arts. Sometimes, scheduling conflicts in the lives of these busy and successful folks prevent a few of them from attending the ceremony. And then there are nominees such as Lauren and Chapman, who try to crunch multiple commitments into the same time frame.
‘My top priority now’
Lauren, who was Columbus High’s nominee in the athletics category, is captain of the school’s girls soccer team, which hosted Upson-Lee in the first round of the state playoffs. The game started at 5:30 p.m, 90 minutes before the Page One Awards ceremony began five miles away from the field.
About 10 minutes before Columbus finished its 5-0 victory, Lauren’s coach subbed her out of the game to give her more time to get to the ceremony. But as team captain, Lauren insisted on staying until the end and replied, “This game is my top priority now.”
Lauren left the field around 7:15 p.m. She changed in the car while her mother drove to the RiverCenter and dropped her off at the front entrance.
Although she missed the ceremony’s segment when the nominees were introduced, Lauren arrived at the RiverCenter in time for the announcement of the winners and runners-up.
After she heard her name announced as the athletics winner, Lauren told the Ledger-Enquirer, “I was so surprised. … It all worked out.”
Lauren plans to attend the University of Georgia, where she was accepted into the Honors College and will major in management information systems.
‘A crazy whirlwind’
Chapman was coaching Brookstone’s boys golf team Tuesday in the region tournament — which they won — in McDonough.
During the two-hour drive back to Columbus, Chapman wondered whether he would make it to the Page One Awards ceremony on time for the 7 p.m. start. The team returned to Brookstone, six miles from the RiverCenter, around 6:50 p.m.
“I knew it was going to be really, really tight coming back,” he told the L-E.
So he changed his clothes in his car, zoomed downtown and found a parking spot in the Columbus Historic District, several blocks from the RiverCenter.
It was 7:13 p.m.
Chapman knew the nominees in the teacher category were scheduled to be honored on stage at 7:10 p.m.
So he sprinted to the RiverCenter, explained his predicament to an usher in the lobby and asked for directions to get back stage. As he zipped through the hallways, he heard his name announced and thought he was being introduced as a nominee.
When he reached the wing of the stage, he asked another usher, “What do I do?”
She told him, “Just go out there. You won runner-up.”
As the audience clapped and cheered, Chapman stood on stage, laughed at himself and thought, “It was very surreal. I was kind of embarrassed. I hope people realized I was late for a good cause, a school-affiliated event, … not overslept on the couch or something like that.”
After leaving the stage and getting a chance to catch his breath, Chapman said, “I was very proud to represent our school. It was a big honor. It was a crazy whirlwind.”
Chapman, in his 10th year at Brookstone, noted the circumstances of his dramatic arrival on stage are a metaphor for an educator’s multiple tasks.
“All teachers wear a lot of hats,” he said. “… It’s symbolic of the nature of the job. It’s a real treat to teach and coach. It’s been such a joy.”
