Tim Smith, Deb Smith and Ginny photo by Heather Tuttle. Tim, Deb and Heather photo by Ginny Clark and signed page from the book. Photo by Deb Smith
BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
We want to preface this piece with the note that next Thursday, September 5, we will be speaking about this new book at the Honeoye Falls Mendon Historical Society meeting which is at the Community Center on North Main Street at 7:30 p.m.
We’re back with an exciting new adventure in our charity book-signing project that we’ve been conducting throughout this summer. To update…, our most recent book was a salute to local history titled Royally Regaling Greater Rochester ~ Taking Stock of the ROC. That led us to embark upon a project whereby we designated two copies of the book, to be signed by as many people as possible who are actually in the book, and then donated to next year’s charity auctions of Lollipop Farm (animal rescue) and Channel 21 (public television). Subsequently, the process of obtaining the signatures has become an adventure in and of itself.
On the evening of Friday, August 8, our charity book signing tour took on an interesting twist. Earlier that week we had visited the Wheatland Municipal Building complex, which houses both the Village of Scottsville and Town of Wheatland offices, and secured signatures from Mayor Maggie Ridge, Historian Barb Chapman, and Librarian Liz Andreae.
Following that, on Friday we go to the Train concert at CMAC to get the signatures of Executive Director Ginny Clark and her second-in-command Heather Tuttle. We had worked with both of them in 2017 when we collaborated on an opportunity to fulfill a dying wish from one of Tim’s former Victor High School English students. His name was Scott Reese, he was suffering from terminal cancer, and one final request he had was to go see the sold-out Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers concert at CMAC which was happening on July 4, 2017.
We had been contacted by friends of the family, on the morning of Saturday, July 3, with the news of Scott’s imminent death and the question of whether or not we could pull some strings at CMAC to make that concert dream become a reality. At that point in time, we did not know any of the fine folks at CMAC so we were totally shooting from the hip.
But we gave it a shot, CMAC responded, Scott Reese saw Tom Petty, and a Sentinel-CMAC bond was established. Of course the irony of that whole situation was that less than two months later Scott Reese and Tom Petty would both be dead, and Tim and Deb, at the request of the high school principal, would be addressing the entire faculty of the Victor High School about the importance of student/teacher relationships at the opening ceremony of the district’s school year that coming fall.
At any rate, returning to the recent evening in question, we had contacted Heather to see if we could make arrangements to have her and Ginny sign our charity books prior to the aforementioned Train concert. Heather replied in the affirmative, but the story is enhanced by how the pot gradually grows sweeter as the story plays out.
Heather and Ginny constitute signees # 50 and # 51 in this project, so obviously there are untold hours that have been committed to this endeavor and if anything were to happen to the two books, it would be nearly impossible to replicate the process. So we convey to Heather that, after the books are signed, we would like to have her make a special exception and waive the “no re-entry” policy to enable us to take the books back to our car after the signings.
At all costs, we want to avoid any type of spilled-beer-by-the-guy-behind-us mishap damaging our charity book Labor of Love project. Heather responds that not only will she facilitate our re-entry, she will provide us with a $30 Premium Parking pass for free.
Then she follows up by saying, “You two volunteer so much of your time to the community through your writing and charity endeavors, we want to give you the full VIP treatment. We’re going to sign you up for admission into our “Second Stage” VIP tent which entitles you to free drinks and a top-of-the-line dinner buffet throughout the course of the evening.” This is totally unexpected, and we are humbled by CMAC’s recognition of our work.
So we arrive at 6:30 and are whisked through parking and security protocols into the VIP tent where we enjoy dinner. Our meeting with Heather and Ginny is scheduled for 7:00 so, at that point, Security picks us up and ushers us to the office area backstage.
It was the first time we had been back there since working on an additional CMAC story in 2018, and truly the most intriguing component of that area is that there is a hallway with one 4’ x 8’ panel designated to every summer CMAC has celebrated. Commemorating every show, a backstage pass for that particular concert is affixed to the panel and the artists sign their names next to their backstage pass. It all makes for a visually stunning sojourn through music history.
Next we meet Ginny and Heather, relive some of our past shared stories, and have them sign the spots in the book where their names are mentioned. At that point, the plan is to have Heather walk us back to our parking spot to put the books away and get us back into the venue.
But Heather, once again, flashes that spark of spontaneity that we love about her. Preempting our walk back to the car, she asks, “Are you guys up for a joy ride? How ‘bout we hop in my golf cart and take a cruise around the venue? It’s something I would do at some point anyway.”
Of course we’re up for the opportunity, and we take off with Deb upfront riding shotgun with Heather driving, and Tim in the back rumble seat facing in the opposite direction. As we cruise around the parking lots we see a dozen people we know and get to wave at them while we know they’re thinking, “How do those Smiths manage to make it into that position?”
At one point, as we slow down to take a curve, Tim sees two of his former Victor soccer players who, upon spotting us, shout out, “VIP’s”! Ever the class clown, Tim’s spontaneous response is, “No, we got kicked out and we’re being ushered back to our car.” Of course that’s just a joke, but we are out of ear shot before there’s time for any clarification.
But the incident does make for an interesting conversation when we run into the Victor contingency back inside the venue. It provides the perfect opportunity to talk up the entire experience. The overall adventure certainly serves as a confirmation of the concept that karma is king!
