I decided to give the award to my parents.

See, my parents have always been supportive of my gaming hobby. Back when I was a kid, they bought me gaming stuff and let me spend my allowance on far too much AD&D stuff. I even DMd for my dad a couple of times (he named his elf NPC buddy "Naes," which is my name spelled backwards, a strong D&D tradition). When I got into my later teenage years, some of my parents' more conservative friends asked if they were comfortable with my gaming. My parents responded, "He's spending time with his friends, he's not getting drunk or high, and he's not getting anyone pregnant. I don't see a problem with any of that." How cool is that?

My parents go to church, too, and they've spoken up in favor of RPGs when guest speakers show up to talk about things that can lead kids into trouble (in one specific incident, the guest speakers started to wander into the territory of claiming that RPGs led to depraved behavior and evil, and my mom stood up and defended gaming as a positive and certainly not harmful influence on my life).

So, to my parents I give my Origins award as a thank-you for their support of me gaming. After all, if they hadn't let me play D&D, I wouldn't have gotten into the gaming industry, and wouldn't have had the opportunity to work on the FRCS, and thus win an award. And you probably wouldn't be reading this website right now. :)

Thanks, mom and dad. :)

The award as it sat on my bookshelf until I gave it to my parents.

My mom (Lynda) and dad (Chuck) with the award. "We'd like to thank the Academy....".