Our work is never done
Soon after all the votes were tallied and the identities of the inaugural inductees to the Hall of Fame were known, the concern set in: how would we deliver all the awards to the recipients? Or to whom would we deliver the awards of those inductees who were inducted posthumously?
It’s been almost four months since we announced the inaugural inductees, and we’ve spent that identical span of time working on getting all the awards delivered. Of the twelve people inducted, we still have four awards yet to go.
While we continue working on that issue, here is a first-hand account of how three of the ACBHOF recipients’ awards found their way into the proper hands. One of our Board Members, Lisa Morrison, is our only West Coast representative, so she took it upon herself to track down the HOF inductees from her region. This included husband-and-wife, Charles and Rose Ann Finkel, and this is the story about Bert Grant.
“One of the unspoken jobs as a board member of the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame involves actually finding the inductees or their relatives to receive their awards. As the sole board representative from the PNW, I volunteered to use my best CSI skills to find those inductees in my region.
TBH, I thought finding someone related to Bert Grant would prove to be the most difficult, but thanks to an online newspaper article and a couple of lucky connections, I was quickly introduced to Bert’s son, Peter, via Facebook.
Peter and his family would be honored to receive their dad’s award. But there was one small slightly expensive problem: they live in Vancouver BC! I know from experience that shipping to Canada isn’t cheap, and I also know our fledgling Hall is counting pennies as many new nonprofits do. But I was undeterred.
Another lucky connection with a second inductee (look for an upcoming post!) convinced me that my restless ways needed to be remedied and (my dog) Pinkie was overdue for a road trip.
It took little time to convince (my husband) Mark Campbell, and soon a plan was hatched that wove in delivering our esteemed awards along with some exploring!
On May 16, at a lovely marina restaurant in a Vancouver BC suburb, I had the honor of presenting Peter Grant and his sister Melanie Bond with the posthumous trophy and certificate to their father, Bert Grant, for his contributions to hops, brewing, and brewpubs. Mark and I also had the pleasure of joining them and Peter’s wife for a lovely lunch. It was fun and enlightening remembering Bert and learning more about him and his private family life.”
Look for another award delivery story coming soon…
ACBHOF Board Member Lisa Morrison, with Peter Grant and Melanie Bond (son and daughter of Bert Grant).