In the mid-sixties, probably during the directorship of Harry Spanier, we felt the need of a morale booster to pep up the Sunday morning staff meetings, which mostly consisted of a critique of the previous week and a look at the things needing to be done for the upcoming week  Someone, probably Charlie Berry, came up with the idea of a humorous award for the biggest mistake of the week so we asked him to develop the Alfred E. Newman Award, named after the “what, me worry” character in Mad Magazine.

That was about the time when Yale latrine was torn down so a used (but clean) open-front toilet seat was easily obtained and painted up with hearts and flowers to serve as the award.  During the staff meeting some lucky staff member would be called up and confronted with the reasons why he had earned the award.  The toilet seat was to be displayed outside his cabin for the week. The staff always got a laugh out of the presentation and every member promised himself to avoid any major goofs during the upcoming week!

Tom Curran believes that Harry Spanier was the first to receive the Alfred E and had to hang it over the door at Pine Tree Cabin.

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Created: August 28, 2011
Last Update: August 28, 2011
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