After the ceremony, I was able to speak to Vince Camuto who expressed the heartwarming feeling that his children are not his only family, but that he sees his employees, most, at least a generation younger than him, as his family. All part of why he won the award and his company has been so successful.
I was able to speak to Curtis Martin at length and was impressed by his calm. He had answers ready for all questions asked. Because his father was an abuser his mother was his mentor. Asked how to guide children in the balance of winning and sportsmanship, Martin said, just try to be the best you can be. Winning at all costs is fine as long as you don’t break any rules. “But it is not competition with others that is important, it is the competition within oneself. Be better than yesterday,” he suggested, “and let the chips fall where they may.” This reporter responded with “And for you, the chips fell pretty well.” And Mr. Martin gave the broadest, warmest smile of ease and grace. It was easy to see how even though the father of rather young children he was honored on this day with father’s of twenty and more years, he is a role model for being the best while remaining cool. A full interview has been recorded.
Father’s Day is June 15 but at the NY Hilton Father’s Day celebrations started yesterday. The Father’s Day/Mother’s Day Council held it’s annual event awarding FATHERS OF THE YEAR to 5 awardees. Fashion Icon Vince Camuto, Governor Chris Christie, medical device executive Robert Reid, Bloomingdales Chairman Tony Strong and Football Hall of Famer Curtis Martin shared the award and one other thing. Each of these men of wealth and power stated in rather similar words “The most important thing that I get to do every day is to be a father.”
In the world in which we live where women in the workplace fight for equality, men are learning to balance responsibilities of work and being a dad. Several of the recipients had children there to speak about the role models their fathers are to them. Robert Reid was nominated for his award based upon his being a swim coach for his daughter’s swim team in the Special Olympics. While four of Camuto’s five children attended, Governor Christie told the audience that only one of his four children could make the ceremony and, in front of the audience of more than 1,000 he told her she was “My new favorite child.” Then smiling, he suggested to her, “You have no idea what this is going to do for you.” Curtis Martin, the final awardee to speak, explained that neither of his children were there, nor his wife, because she is home, breast feeding their new baby and his 2½ year old son was a bit too young to understand what this means. All the other recipients, as well as the Hostess of the event, CBS news personality Nora O’Donnell, who was awarded one of the Mother of the Year honors just last month, expressed humility in winning the award and told of the reaction of their children based in surprise. Basically asking “You? You’re the best?”
Governor Christie has taken heat for his relation with his children for being in Disney World during a snowstorm that buried New Jersey and for taking a state police helicopter to watch his son’s baseball game. The Governor garnered praise when this past Easter he invited another son’s Princeton baseball team to the governor’s mansion, because their team schedule did not allow the teammates to go home for the holidays. He proudly announced that the daughter that attended was going to start Notre Dame in September.
Another common thread of all winners were their recalling their childhoods and the fathers they had. Vince Camuto’s father died at a young age, which caused his family lose their home and build a life from that point. He found his first job as a ladies shoe salesman on Fifth Avenue and he learned that all ladies wanted was for a man to listen to what they need, and that early experience became the cornerstone for his business. He felt that while his father gave him lessons, which he used in life, it was his mother who reared the family. Curtis Martin learned from his father what not to be. The lesson he learned from his father was to forgive for the abuses of his childhood. He recalled that one of his greatest moments in life was getting his mother to forgive his father for his lifetime of improper actions. But other fathers were true role models, which guided these fathers.
As a father, this reporter was reminded by this ceremony, the commonality of mankind. Every fathers first day of becoming who they are, was the day their first child was born.
After the ceremony, I was able to speak to Vince Camuto who expressed the heartwarming feeling that his children are not his only family, but that he sees his employees, most, at least a generation younger than him, as his family. All part of why he won the award and his company has been so successful.
As a father, this reporter was reminded by this ceremony, the commonality of mankind. Every fathers first day of becoming who they are, was the day their first child was born.