Grant Geek Diva
Dawn Duncan
This lovely kitty is named Lenox. He is the winner of the cat costume contest at a cat show that was held on Sunday, August 25, 2024 in Natick, MA. My friend and colleague, Ron Bell, of Boston Black News, was asked for the second year in a row to be a judge in this contest.
What, you might say, could this possibly have to do with democracy? Well, dear reader, I will tell you. When we arrived at the venue for Ron to judge this contest, we learned that there had been a glitch and another judge was unable to attend so that the entirety of the judging fell onto Ron. Therefore, he had to quickly adjust and come up with a process for a fair contest. He quickly sprang into action, got all the cat owners in a row and set up a process for each contestant to present their cat and their costume and share a little bit about their story – the costume, any inspiration behind it, etc. There was an audience of approximately 50 people, who were enthusiastically watching. Ron asked me to help him as it was a little overwhelming trying to oversee this whole process himself. The only other assistance available was from the EMcee who made it very clear that he couldn’t participate directly. After all the contestants made their presentations, Ron turned to me and whispered ‘How am I going to choose?’ He was truly perplexed. Suddenly, it came to him. Likely at least due to his (and my) decades of experience as community organizers, he proposed a brilliant idea. Let’s let the audience decide. Yes, indeed, a democratic process!
