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Back then, I would be invited to speak or participate in “celebrity” reading events at area schools. The children were smiling, full of questions and hugs for Aunt Judy. Many would want to tell about a special entry they sent.
That’s when I realized what a great service The Flint Journal has provided our community for so many years. It was the late 1930s when The Journal first published a feature called “The Children's Corner” that included “The Wide Awake Club.” On May 15, 1938, the club was featured on its own, and it has appeared ever since. Now, The Journal devotes two pages every Monday to the artistic and literary efforts of young people. Club members ages 5-15 submit poetry, drawings or stories on a specified topic for possible publication. Prize winners are selected each week and awarded a book of their choice from the Wide Awake Club bookshelf at The Journal.
We receive more than 1,400 entries a week. With new technology, WACers have many ways of getting their entries to Aunt Judy. We still receive many by mail, but entries are also received by fax and at the club’s e-mail address, wac@FlintJ.com. Children can even e-mail artwork to us now — a big change from the days when drawings had to be done in India ink. To celebrate the start of the club, about 2,000 people gathered downtown at the Capitol Theatre. Featured was R. Ray Baker, author of the “Bobby and the Old Professor” articles that appeared on the Wide Awake Club page each Sunday; Aunt Judy, who was Marian Purdy Pierce; and Wilburn Legree, Flint’s singing policeman. In 1988, to mark WAC’s 50th anniversary, another 2,000 or so fans came to the Genesee Valley shopping center. Former Aunt Judys were there to greet former, current and future WACers. Many grownups stopped by to say how much the club meant to them. The many members of The Journal staff who have been WAC alumni can relate. They include: • The late Barry Edmonds, former Journal director of photography, drew a picture of a wide-awake owl in 1943, when WAC members were asked to suggest a mascot for the club. Edmonds’ “Winky” appears on the page each week to announce the prize-winners. • Cindy Byrd, who retired as secretary to the publisher in 1992, was the longest-running Aunt Judy from 1965-79. She was a club member in the 1940s, never dreaming that someday she would be editor of the page. “After being a member of the club from 1942 to 1944, I found myself thrilled at the prospect of being Aunt Judy,” she said. “I felt like a teacher at times, when past members would come back after they were grown.” • Jennifer Walkling, The Journal’s At Home section editor and children’s book reviewer, attended Selby Elementary in Flint when she was a regular WAC contributor. One special entry was a story in 1968 about her brother as he served in Vietnam. She became Aunt Judy in 1981. • Wendy Brimley, retail advertising manager, was a member from 1969-72. Her interest in art led her to pursue a commercial art and advertising degree. “Every Saturday I'd run out to get the paper and turn to the page, anxiously scanning the drawings, stories and poems to see if any were mine,” she said. • The current Aunt Judy, Diane Harvey, was a member in the 1950s and fondly remembers when she won her prize book. “I was so excited to go downtown to The Flint Journal,” said Harvey, who became Aunt Judy in 1999. “I selected a Nancy Drew book, my favorite series at that time.” It had been the policy to keep the true identity of Aunt Judy secret until the late 1980s, when she started to speak to children touring The Journal and going to schools as a guest speaker. Aunt Judy also would accompany the winners of the annual “Circus week” contest to the Shrine Circus. An estimated 75,000 children have joined the club since it began, and The Journal has given away more than 10,000 books. For some, the impact has been lasting. “I surely did continue writing poetry,” wrote Thais F. Hengy, 68, of Davison, who owns a publishing business with her daughter. “We have published eight books of poetry, and I have written more than 800 poems,” she said, adding that the eight-line verse she wrote in 1943 for the Wide Awake Club was her first ever. Free-lance writer Elizabeth Wehman of Owosso was a member from Durand in the ’60s. She has the “Little House on the Prairie” book she selected when she was a prize-winner in 1969. “I felt I was a budding writer wannabe,” she recalled. “Every Saturday I would wait for the paper to see if I was published.” WAC not only has maintained the interest of children but also has continued to grow. In 1939, a record was set when 110 entries were received in a single day. The Journal now receives an average of 280 submissions per workday. Over the past 12 years, the club has become big in many classrooms. Teachers use WAC to help motivate children to write. Teachers tell us how much children enjoy a certain topic or how an unmotivated student became the first to turn in an entry after being published. Recently, The Journal received an e-mail from former WAC member David Renner, who now lives in Seattle. He sent an excerpt from an autobiography in progress, which included the following: “I fancied myself an artist. I sent elaborate drawings to Aunt Judy’s Wide Awake Club in the Sunday Journal. One week I won first prize and got published. Puffed with pride, I showed my mother the picture of the train engine that I had devoted so many hours to perfecting. ‘That’s good, David,’ she smiled. ‘But where’s the engineer?’ ” He recounted how his artist mother picked apart the drawing’s flaws, and how he later drew a baseball player only to see it dismissed by a man selling art lessons door to door. “Aunt Judy was my only friend. I sent her my baseball player. I’m not sure if it was published,” he wrote. “It probably was. Aunt Judy knew talent.” When I was Aunt Judy, I would read the 1,400 entries (each and every one) sent in and face the hard task of selecting which should be published and win the prize for that week. I recall one Sherman Middle School student who sent his drawings faithfully each week. Aaron Jubar’s talent was extraordinary, and his goal was to be published 100 times in the club before turning 15. He made it. Aaron went on to graduate from Hope College in 1996 with a degree in biology and now is a substitute teacher at Powers Catholic High School. He is engaged and plans to go back to school to earn his teaching certificate. The Wide Awake Club gives the opportunity for children to express their feelings, talents and sometimes to inspire, for their family, peers and teachers — and 100,000 or more Journal readers — to see. Renner’s advice to WACers: “Keep expressing yourselves and submitting your art. People might like it.”
Page Designer Lisa Harvey-Wilson started at The Journal in 1986. She can be reached at (810) 766-6138 or lwilson@flintjournal.com. 
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