Events

First Grade Class at Indian Ridge Elementary School

Sally is delighted to speak to the first-grade class of Sondra Antinone Petrelle. The students have already practiced making things with papier-mâché, the essence of the original Ohio State mascot. Sondra and Sally met on a plane trip in May. Sondra is a former cheerleader at Ohio State.

Brutus & Cheer Alumni Dinner & Awards

Sally will be speaking briefly at the dinner about the creation of Brutus Buckeye. She is eager to connect with her friends who are Brutus & Cheer alumni.

Ohio State vs. Toledo, Annual Reunion of Brutus & Cheer Alumni

Sally will be enjoying food and pre-game celebration with the Brutus & Cheer Alumni. Doug Congrove, Brutus 1990-92 and master tailgate chef, is helping with the reunion tailgate party. If time, Sally plans to sneak into the Skull Session before joining the Brutus & Cheer Alumni for their annual run down the tunnel into the stadium. Sally doesn’t run anymore, so she’ll see how that goes. The Alumni will be seated together in Section 3A for the game, then cheer during the third quarter.

The Gametime Guru Podcast – Guest Sally Lanyon

Whether you watch the football game on TV or in person, when you catch the Ohio State Buckeyes, you’ll notice the mascot jumping around. Brutus Buckeye has become just as much a part of the culture of Ohio State athletics as the band has.

The Gametime Guru host Shane Larson, aka the Boise Buckeye, says, “Sally shares the whole story behind the history of Brutus Buckeye! What an incredible history lesson that shows a lot about the history of Ohio State, especially their football program.”

Available on any podcast platform and YouTube.

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Google Podcasts

iHeart Radio

YouTube

Literacy Connects 10-Year Anniversary Celebration

Sally and her husband Paul Hawkins will be hosting The Brutus Blog table at this year’s Get Connected event for Literacy Connects. The event serves a dual purpose of fundraising and celebrating the organization’s impact on the community in literacy and creative expression from birth to adulthood. For tickets to the event or to make a donation: https://literacyconnects.org/10years/. 

Sally is winding up her 6-year term on the Board of Directors. She served as Board Chair, Governance Chair, and headed the Executive Director Search Committee. Her main interests were Board and Staff diversity, setting up an Endowment Fund to assure sustainability, and heading a board-staff-community team to create a dashboard with impact metrics for the strategic pillars of Programs, People, Finance and Advocacy. And to feed her soul, Sally volunteered with Stories that Soar!,  helping select the elementary student stories that would be turned into a student assembly stage production.

The Ohio State University at Mansfield Graduation Celebration, Keynote Presenter

In addition to walking in the graduation ceremonies at the main campus in Columbus, Mansfield students are feted at a graduation celebration that includes their families and university board, faculty and staff. Sally is this year’s keynote presenter. Attendance is by invitation only. Sally is delighted to be returning to her hometown roots and to be part of a major achievement in students’ lives.

Rotary Club of Mansfield, OH

Sally will be the guest of Cindy Wood, Club President and Director of Development and Community Relations, The Ohio State University at Mansfield. Sally formerly presented to the club, via Zoom, “The Making of a Mascot.”  Sally volunteers at her husband’s Rotary Club in Tucson, AZ, and served on the RYLA faculty for three years. The RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) was a four-day camp and challenge course experience for southern Arizona youth held in Prescott, AZ.

OSU Mansfield Campus Hall of Fame Alumni Awards

Sally is among the Sesquicentennial OSU Mansfield Campus Special Honors recipients to be acknowledged by Molly Ranz Calhoun, President and CEO of The Ohio State University Alumni Foundation. The awards ceremony, originally scheduled for Spring 2020, will also include recent annual awardees. If you will be in the area and would like to attend, please contact Cindy Wood, wood.1183@osu.edu.

Odyssey Storytelling Presents: CAMP

If you are ready for an hour of giggling, chuckling and guffawing—and who isn’t?—plan to attend CAMP.
I am one of seven true story presenters in the upcoming Odyssey Storytelling show. The shows have moved online for the duration of the pandemic, so you can “be in your pjs with a cocktail,” according to the producers. Yes, it is really happening on April 1. No Foolin’.

The heralded Tucson nonprofit has been operating for free during the pandemic, but is beginning to run on empty. They are figuring out how to charge $10 a household for the show. An excellent value. Details will be up soon on their website and FaceBook page.

Website Link: Odyssey Storytelling Presents: Thursday, April 1, 2021 – Camp
Facebook link: Odyssey Storytelling Camp Event

Tucson Festival of Books

UPDATE: Replays of the 2021 Festival are now online at: tucsonfestivalofbooks.org. The 96 presentations run the gamut: History/Biography, Current Issues/Politics/Social Science, Fiction/Literature, Children/Teens, Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror, Mystery/Thrillers, Poetry, Romance, Sports, Nuestras Raices, and Science/Medicine/Technology. Oh, and True Crime. Something for everyone!

Tucson Festival of Books, the third largest Book Festival in the United States, was cancelled in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic was getting a solid foothold across the country. The organizers of the Festival have creatively provided interviews with authors and other content during the year at www.tucsonfestivalofbooks.org. Please join! It’s free and it’s fabulous.

The 2021 event will be a virtual festival with “live author sessions from all genres,” according to their website. I’ll miss the community and food booths, but am delighted to be able to learn from noted authors and to watch the live shows from the various tent stages. As a member of the board of Literacy Connects in Tucson, I am grateful to Tucson Festival of Books for continuing to fund our diverse literacy programs. As an author, I am grateful to learn directly from amazing speakers and to have been selected several years ago to participate in the Festival’s Master Writing Workshop, which follows on the Monday and Tuesday after the Festival. I applaud the Festival organizers for their interest in keeping us safe during the pandemic. While we are celebrating the release of the first vaccines, we can imagine that an event that typically attracts over 100,000 participants will not yet be feasible in 2021. Stay masked, stay socially distanced awhile longer, please!

Conversation with Gene Smith

Sally will be attending Varsity O’s discussion with Ohio State Athletics Director Gene Smith. The lecture portion of the event will focus on how Smith, a former student-athlete himself, has balanced the drive to compete with his responsibilities to lead and protect Buckeye student-athletes during the COVID-19 outbreak. Hosted by Steve Chappelear, Varsity O president, the discussion will include a Q&A segment for “burning” questions. My blog readers are invited to submit questions for me to ask – use my online Contact Form to reach me!

Civil Discourse and Debate

Sally will be attending “Civil Discourse and Debate” with David Axelrod and Chris Christie, hosted by Colleen Marshall, Anchor for NBC4 in Columbus. The event is sponsored by the New Albany Foundation through The Ohio State Alumni Club.