Heading into the awards dinner at the NCMPR conference, we got a break in the action, with a couple of hours down-time after a morning full of workshop sessions. We all attended our respective sessions in the first half of the day, and then rendezvoused for our first outing into the Windy City together in the daylight.
Hold onto your hats, it's a wild and windy one! A few days later, the Chicago River behind my colleagues from Middlesex would be dyed green for St. Patrick's Day.
A few blocks from the hotel, we made it to Portillo's, one of the legendary hot dog restaurants that dot the Chicago downtown.
So of course, it's Chicago Dogs all around, complete with pickles atop them. But don't put ketchup on a hot dog in Chicago. They'll shoot you.
Me, I got an Italian beef sandwich, because everybody raved about them. And they were right. I even hit it off with the food clerk, with my flirting earning me a jumbo root beer, the likes of which I could never drink.
A block away, we stopped by a place that Mike Cassidy and I visited in June, 1987, while we were travelling cross-country for a month, Ed Debevic's diner. (I still have a single beer in my refrigerator from that 1987 trek!)
We walked into a group shaking their tail feathers on the counter
So of course, Donna and I had to join in
From there, our group parted ways, with a handful heading for the art museums and me and my running buddies heading to the 103rd floor of the Willis (formerly the Sears) Tower.
Let me tell you, the view is breathtaking, but it AIN'T for anyone remotely spooked by heights. In Boston, these buildings we're looking down on would be towering skyscrapers.
Dare to Step Out, that's their motto up top, if you have the cookies to step out onto the glass viewing area. Gulp! Trust me, when you look down, it's a long, long, long way down.
Finally, with a couple of hours of tourist time in the books, we headed off to the main event of the conference, the Paragon Awards dinner!
Team MCC was one of 1,700 submissions to the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR).
Our submission was the book we published last summer, Sully: The Words, Wit, and Wisdom of Paul Sullivan. The book was a collection of nearly 100 of Paul's columns that he wrote for the Lowell Sun, and it was a labor of love for everyone involved.
We were proud as all hell to represent the college, to honor Paul's memory, and to take home 3rd place in the fund-raising category with our submission!
Super proud to be working with such a talented group of committed individuals, and really proud we were able to take home a win in Paul's memory.
We spent a great deal of time talking with our peers from all over the country, and we're really busting our buttons about the team we've put together in the Public Affairs department at MCC. I'd happily go into battle with any of them. Or out on a glass ledge.
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