We would like to congratulate Christopher Carothers, our 2024 Contact Award recipient. The Volker/McChesney award was created in 2006 to honor area fans who have exemplified service to the fandom community. The award was named for two past Farpoint Chairs, Beverly J. Volker and Marion McChesney, lynchpins of local fan activity who had been instrumental in the creation of Baltimore area conventions and fanzines. The award recognizes long-term contributions to the fandom community through creative and service endeavors. It says that the recipient has shaped our local fandom in an unforgettable way.
Beverly and her sister Nancy Kippax started a fanzine called Contact in 1975, choosing a name that they felt defined the goal of the U.S.S. Enterprise’s explorations, and our need to seek out and embrace fandom, discovering the difference in others, and delighting in that difference. Joining the “Contact Crowd”, providing stories, art and editing to many issues, were two other talented fans, Marion McChesney and Sandra Zier-Teitler. This group provided key support to the committee of the early Shore Leave conventions, and then started running their own conventions in 1984. And so, for Bev, for Marion, for Nancy and for Sandy, we proudly announce the award is renamed as the Contact Award, which honors each of them, and the spirit and gifts they shared with us all.
Chris Carothers, as our 2024 recipient, represents the modern version of the spirit that led our fandom forebears to work to reach out and support the fandom community. Chris is familiar to Farpoint Attendees as the host of Vic’s Place Karaoke and the Ten Forward dance party and as a member of the Luna-C troupe. Chris and his late production partner Lee Warren, together with their incredible team, have been lighting up the late nights at Farpoint for decades now. Chris has a knack for making whatever he works on easier and better. He goes out of his way to help other fans, and puts his whole heart (and his considerable skills) into the effort.
(Text credit Steven H. Wilson for input to this announcement text providing a history of Contact fanzine and the Contact Crowd. Photo credit Laurel Mill Playhouse).
