meet the 2017 ginger panel

Prepare yourselves! Ginger 2017 is here! Beginning tomorrow you’ll see 15 competitive ginger masterpieces on this here blog.

Voting for the People’s Choice Prize starts on Monday and will continue until Thursday. The (one) ginger creation with the highest total number of votes will claim the prize. There are 3 groupings of ginger creations; you can cast a vote in each poll. That means you can vote for 3 ginger masterpieces! THREE!

Don’t forget to leave a shout out for your favourite entries in the comment sections – I know it means a lot to our competitors. You can support your favourite entries by encouraging your friend to vote too. If you have more than one friend, good for you. No one likes a bragger.

I’d like to introduce you to the members of the 2017 Ginger Panel, tasked with selecting the 1st and 2nd place winners from a pile of ginger awesome. This year’s panel is made up entirely of people I went to high school with. So, yah, they know a thing or two about judging people. (Class of 1990, bitches!)

Meet the 2017 Ginger Panel!

Christine Arab

I’ve been friends with Christine since the day she was born. My mother was in the delivery room when Christine was birthed. (Sorry I said birthed.) Thank god for yearbooks because I had completely forgotten that Christine was the Sr. Queen of Winter Carnival and participated in horseback riding. I don’t remember having horses at school, but maybe they were in the yard where the bangers smoked. Apparently Christine’s nickname in high school was Weiner, which begs the question: what the actual hell, Christine?

Jamie Dragatis

Also know as Deaggie and Dragatumus, Jamie was one of the funniest people I knew in high school. That’s why I’m one of the funniest people you know now. I didn’t know my high school had a curling team, but apparently Jamie was on it. Jamie also wore super-rad tinted glasses and encouraged me to drink alcohol and swear. SORRY MOM.

Dawn Magee Elliot

Dawn was on the track & field, badminton, soccer and volleyball teams. Also, according to our yearbook, the curling team that I didn’t know existed. Boys really liked Dawn because she was totally bodacious but also capable of kicking any one of their asses. And get this: she played real estate agent in the drama club’s production of Exit the Body, AND NOW SHE’S A REAL ESTATE AGENT.

Heather Johnson

Heather got to play the flute in our high school band. I had to play the clarinet. I hated the clarinet. Hippy (a nickname which would now drive most teenaged girls to an eating disorder) also participated in drama, yearbook, senior canteen, grad & prom, and was treasurer of the student council. Unfortunately, Heather made the mistake of telling us that running in deep snow made her want to vomit, so this is probably what she’ll best be remembered for.

Cheri Killam

I sat behind Cheri in… some sort of class. Math? English? I remember being very envious of her hair and glasses. Cheri was cool without trying, and probably didn’t even know she was cool without trying. I was the opposite. (Trying to be cool, knowing I was failing miserably.) Cheri’s grad bio is 80s gold, and I thought I’d share my favourite bits with you: Cheri arrived at West Kings in grade 11 and a most memorable moment has thus far eluded her. Her pet peeves are people and life in general. Her favourite expression is silence. Cheri exists through fate and is sustained by R.E.M. 

Craig Miller

Craig was — according to our yearbook — also known as Killer Miller. This seems to be in direct conflict with the title of Mr. Congeniality he was awarded by our grad class. Was I Miss Congeniality 1990? Duh! Of course I was. Were we, like, the two best people in our high school? Obviously. They don’t give those awards to just anybody. Craig was also a member of the Liason Committee. I don’t even know what that is.

Sib Pye

Sib was a skateboarder and had long hair, making him the coolest human I’ve ever met in real life. Sib signed my yearbook with: I really wish I’d taken the time to learn your first name. So, yah, he was pretty funny. When I asked Sib to be on the Ginger Panel he told me he’d be a great fit because he and his wife had experience creating a “pretty spectacular ginger creation, aka, our daughter.” It was too late to kick him off the panel at that point.

Maura MacNaughton Timmons

Maura had to play the clarinet in band just like me. Her family had a swimming pool which means my family will never share recipes with her because my mother said families with swimming pools already had enough fun. Moose (a nickname that would now be considered bullying and/or harassment) wrote the following gem in my yearbook: “I think we must be the closet group of friends in existence. Or at least in West Kings. Those Grade 10 slut-bags probably think they’re better but they fight all the time.”

God, I love my friends.