Melissa Shehane, Elaine and Eugene Baumann
Mom’s an apple; Dad’s a banana. At StoryCorps, Melissa Shehane talks with her parents, Elaine and Eugene Baumann, about nominating them to be Parents of the Year at Texas A&M University in 2004. They won the highly-competitive process.
- [Elaine Baumann] I think encouragement, and particularly for younger children, well all really, but when they're so young and unsure of themselves I think the encouragement that you can provide for them goes a long way, both with them and with the parents.
- [Melissa Shehane] Well, I think you know this, but Kim and I always feel so blessed that y'all are our parents. You've been wonderful role models, and it was just a treat. Gosh, now it's been a long time since in '04, '05 nominating y'all for Texas A & M Aggie Parents of the Year. I thought I'd share a little bit about that process and as an undergraduate student, there's an organization- the Parents Weekend Committee- and they now have renamed themselves to, I believe, Family Weekend Committee puts out a call to nominate family to be Parents of the Year. And I was like, ya know, what the heck. I might as well try to apply for this. It would be a neat recognition and if they get it that would be amazing, but if they did not I'd still have an opportunity to honor them in some way. So we went ahead and applied, and had to get letters of recommendation from family and friends. And one of the big tenants was related to your history of commitment to education. That was a big piece of it, and also just the role modeling you all did in our life of unconditional love, inspiring that curiosity for learning, being servant-minded in your church community and in your community as a whole, and being that constant, steady nurturing educator. So we tried to pour our hearts out in that format, and lo and behold, a month prior to the award ceremony, I got a phone call saying I needed to come in for an interview because my parents were finalists for the Parents of the Year. I was like, oh my goodness. How do I prepare? I started to friends that were members on the committee, and they were just like, oh just be yourself and they didn't give me much information. I was like okay. So I walk in this room, it was the Governance room in the Koldus building and they proceed to interview me. And I thought it was a little peculiar because some of the questions they started with were: if your parents were a fruit, what would they be and why? And I was like, this is really odd, but I just rolled with it. I was really nervous, and I just said I think my mom would be an apple because she loves teaching and she loves children and she's an educator at heart. And my dad would be a banana 'cause he's kind of a jokester and bananas make me think of somethin' funny. So I don't why that question, in particular, vividly stuck out, but that one did. But they also asked more meaningful questions too; why do you think they deserve the honor, et cetera? Then, towards the end of the interview, all of the Executive Team ran out with balloons and cake, and they said this was a joke. They are Parents of the Year. We just wanted to surprise you. I then started screaming and crying, and it was an exciting secret for the next month. So, a few weeks down the road was the All University Award Ceremony and that's where I thought I'd turn the table to them and hear a little bit about that day from their perspective 'cause we had to keep it a secret for about a month.
- [Elaine Baumann] One of the first things we heard was that she was going to receive the Buck Weirus Award. That sounded fine; we were very happy for her. So we dressed up and came over for the award and she did receive it. But our older daughter came also and her family. So I was so happy that we were all gathered there. And then, they announced that we were it and that was the biggest surprise. I had no idea and I don't believe that Gene did either.