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Friday, April 12, 2019

Spreading Honey Bunny's Story, Part 2

In late February I gave a presentation at Mercer County Library's Hopewell Branch about Honey Bunny's artwork. This was followed two weeks later with the same presentation at the Benjamin Temple House in Ewing -- a place who received many of Honey Bunny's treasures.

We debated between holding the event upstairs vs. downstairs. The pro to upstairs was the attendees would not have to go down the rickety basement steps, unless they wanted to use the rest room. The con was there was no area large enough for people to gather and be far enough away from the screen to see the power point presentation. If only a half dozen people came, we could gather around the three copies of the books.

The only downside to downstairs were the stairs. 

Downstairs won.

In the end, about 20 people came. Some left early, others came late. My friend
Nancy surprised me by coming, so I put her to work pushing the next "button" on the PowerPoint presentation.

I am wishing I wrote this post sooner, but running my first gala took all my free energy over the past month.

Ellie, the director of the Ewing Historical Society, and the rest of the historical society outdid themselves. They had a lovely spread of cheeses and vegetables for the post-presentation noshing. Ellie recently took some of Honey Bunny's ephemera and put them in two cases. It was the first time I saw this. She included a sketch, a sketchbook, some slides, a letter she wrote. It was very moving. Of course her artwork was also on the walls.

A great surprise to me was seeing Grace. Grade was Don's 5th grade teacher in 1974 (as a guess). She still remembers his class as it was her first year teaching. Don confirmed her stories. I met her in 1988 when I was at TSC and she was on the alumni board. She has not aged. She commented it is nice to stand next to someone as tall as she is. It was also wonderful seeing Wayne and Sylvia, Wayne was one of my first college professors. I was touched they came, even though they heard the same basic presentation last year at the Ewing Presbyterian Church's senior group.

I wish I had more to add. It was a lovely gathering. Public speaking is not something I do very often, though I am not afraid of it, hence it is a good skill for me to continue to hone. I thank Ellie for giving me the chance to leave my comfort zone for a short while.


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