As you may know, Andy109 is the latest Good Citizen Award winner. A very good citizen indeed, Andy109 has written 10 Times articles and contributed to many forums. He's also a Why-Helper and was a Solstice leader for a second place team. He's a true veteran and, just to show that, he was nominated for Prom King.

As I've also found out, he's a very nice person to be around. ;-) I decided to catch up with him and see what he thought about his new award.

What was going through your head when you first found out you'd won the Good Citizen Award?

"Well, I was in Club Why at the time, during a Meet the Makers session, and I wasn't actually really paying attention to what was going on. I think I was sipping on some lemonade. I don't actually remember. [City Worker] Neutral was just going over an agenda of things to say. All of a sudden he said something along the lines of, 'And this month's Good Citizen Award winner is sitting right beside me: Andy109!'"

"I quickly jumped over to my keyboard and typed a 'O_O'."

Had you ever thought that you might be nominated for this award?

"I've secretly wanted it for a while; only about an hour before the announcement I was talking to madfin, a previous GCA winner, about what a great idea these awards were, and how jealous I was. ;)"

"I honestly don't know who nominated me. Some people say it was City Hall; others say it was a senator. I'm not sure, but I'm still SO happy that SOMEONE out there thought I had done something right. XD"

You're a Why-Helper, aren't you? What's it like nominating people for the award yourself?

"Yes, I am. People have actually asked me to nominate them. Some of them, I do believe are GCA material, but I don't know if they would fully deserve it since they more like begged for it. Truth be told, I've only nominated one person so far. XD"

A lot of people have been saying things like, "It's only *famous* people who get the award" or "Only friends of yhelpers and senators get the award." What do you think of this?

"Well for one, I think if you are famous BECAUSE you help newbies or BECAUSE you are so active in the community, you totally deserve a GCA."

"They don't deserve a GCA because they're famous. They're famous because they deserve a GCA."

(Author's Note: That's some food for thought there!)

"Mind you, friends of Senators and Y-Mail Helpers are the first people who come to our minds when we think of people to nominate -- so there might be a little bias. But I honestly would not nominate a friend who I thought wasn't a good citizen."

Apart from the nice little face part you have indicating the award, has anything different happened to you since becoming Good Citizen? And are you going to do anything different?

"Well, everywhere I go it's kind of neat to get little whispers saying, 'You're that Citizen Thingy.' I've also received a lot more Y-Mails than usual, many of them congratulating, saying, 'Congrats... did you win the election or something?'"

"It's kind of funny. -.-"

"One person now calls me 'The guy on the front page' XD"

"Since that article about me came out, I realized I haven't written much for the Times lately -- most of those older articles of mine are a little embarrassing to me now, seeing as I wrote them years ago, when I had a significantly lower power with words. I intend to write a lot more help articles, and have two already awaiting processing by the Editor."

What do you personally think of the award?

"It's green. :)"

"I think it's an awesome idea. It really gave me a huge self-esteem boost -- and made me really feel good for all those years I've put into Whyville. Seriously, people, you don't need to be a Y-Mail Helper to help people. Even more so, if you see an average person on the street being kind and generous to a newbie, send me a Y-Mail, I would love to forward your nominations. This GCA will help push random acts of kindness in our town."

Do you think anything else should happen with the Award in the future?

"Hmm. Good question."

"Some people have brought up the idea of a 'Good Report' system, where rather than 911ing someone, you can report good behavior."

"But pretty much, just having a chance, like I am here, to speak out to Whyville is good enough for me. I think every GCA winner should be able to take the time to write something for the entire town to see."

"What they've learned over the years -- why they do what they do, if it's Y-Mail Helping, showing leadership in a safari, a Chinese checkers adventure, or just being a friend -- I think these are all things that should be said to enlighten the masses."

Any other comments?

"You don't need to win an award to be a Good Citizen. If you're making an impact, people will take notice -- and in a small way, you will be acknowledged."

Thanks, Andy109!!!

Well, that was my interview with the latest good citizen. He gave very nice and thorough answers don't ya think? I wonder who will be next Good Citizen?

This is Cobd....