Meeting a legend

Wow.
I am somewhat shell shocked after meeting one of my heroes.
I had the pleasure of meeting Helen Thomas today, and spending part of the afternoon with her during her visit to Des Moines. Ms. Thomas was gracious enough to share her time with Drake students and some area high school students after being the featured speaker at a Chrysalis Foundation Insights luncheon.
Here is Helen with Terry Hernandez, Executive Director of the Chrysalis Foundation.

What a thrill to meet the woman referred to as "The First Lady of the Press!" Helen Thomas stared working for United Press International in 1943, and has covered every President since John F. Kennedy. She was the only woman to travel to China with President Nixon in 1972. You'd think that such a high profile person would give her speech, schmooze with some of the event organizers and leave. Not Helen. Here she is being interviewed by Drake student and former Channel 13 intern, Anamarie Rebori.

And it's not as if Anamarie is the only person who had this opportunity ... this is the line of students and staff waiting to get an autograph, picture or interview. Helen was gracious, humble, smart and entertaining ... not to mention inspiring.

She made this reporter's day!

I could keep writing indefinitely about this day, but I am up against deadline once again.
If you have questions about Helen Thomas and her speech, or the Q & A at Drake please send them my way.

And, if you're interested in helping girls and woman in Iowa, check out www.chrysalisfdn.org to see how you can get involved.

Thanks for stopping by the blog,

EEK