The Joost Bosland awards

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the "Support Duke's Troops" Joost Bosland Awards (SDTJBA's).

The jury, consisting of me, myself and I, had an extremely rough time ploughing through the myriad nominations that flooded my inbox after the column appeared. The stats: Seven people bothered to e-mail me. Six of these e-mails contained nominations. One person nominated two people, one hero got nominated twice.

Guys, you are pathetic.

All I can do is hope that more people took my advice for the jaded and showed appreciation of our troops at a more personal level.

Callie Ayers-Cox, the Staff Assistant to the Director of Office for Undergraduate Scholars and Fellows, is the first proud warrior that deserves an SDTJBA. According to her nomination, "she's certainly underappreciated in the office, as the director and assistant director get all of the credit, though she does a lot of the legwork."

Her role as a "second mom" to several students, also mentioned in the nominating e-mail, deserves an extra round of applause.

Betsy Wagner and Diann Walker, both Staff Assistants at the Community Affairs Office, are also praiseworthy recipients of an SDTJBA. The nomination for Wagner brags that she "just does it," and her "willingness to explain procedure along with her partner, Diann Walker" qualify both for the category exceptional support staff.

Rosey works the register at the Sanford Deli in the mornings. Why does she deserve an award? The following statement really does say it all:

"In a long hellish week, the warmth emanating from her cheerful face always brightens my day, and when I get sick of being in the pubpol building, I think of Rosey and why I love Duke."

Angie Thornburg's nomination was the most elaborate and descriptive. A financial specialist in OSAF, she handles financial transactions for some 500 student groups. According to the nominating e-mail, "she'll go the extra mile, make the extra phone call." Her attributes include a "friendly demeanor, a helpful attitude, a quick wit, a soft southern drawl and a smile on her face."

A worthy recipient indeed.

Now it's time for the drum roll... The winner of the top award in this year's SDTJBA's was not only nominated twice, his nomination was also the only one to include outside evidence (in the form of a discussion on DukePass).

Wallace Burrow--aka The Omelet Guy--is a chef at the Marketplace and is always up for "a conversation about sports [and] politics." That he truly cares about students is evident from one of his nominations: "He is the nicest guy ever and at my miserable 8:30 econ that I have twice a week, he is a warm and welcoming guy to be around."

Wallace, mad props to you. The SDTJBA's have, as of yet, no sponsors. Unfortunately, this means I cannot offer you anything tangible. Jim Wulforst, however, could.

Jim, I directly challenge you to recognize Wallace's great contribution to the Duke community.

With so few respondents, this years awards are hardly representative. Many more excellent service soldiers are out there on our campus, waiting for some recognition. Let me plead my case one last time: Support Duke's troops!

In other business: Pasha and his henchmen have managed to convince me that DSG might not be beyond repair after all. In response to my "Grannies" column, the DSG website has been completely revamped, and it has been kept up-to-date since. Their bi-weekly e-mail updates are a further step in the right direction. Who said DSG hatin' on the editorial pages wasn't productive?

That being said, I bid farewell to my readers for at least a semester. I need a break.

Joost Bosland is a Trinity junior.