Chaz Ebert recently disqualified two household names, former U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (a University of Chicago alumnus), from the list of nominees for the inaugural FECK Awards.
Why?
She was looking to highlight what everyday people — your neighbor, your co-worker, your friend — are doing to make the world a better place.
The FECK Awards is a new national recognition event honoring individuals and groups who embody the values of forgiveness, empathy, compassion and kindness, aka FECK. Winners were announced last month after a nomination window that ended Dec. 31.
The awards follow Ebert’s 2024 book, “It’s Time to Give a FECK: Elevating Humanity Through Forgiveness, Empathy, Compassion, and Kindness,” which she describes as a call to action to build a more humane, understanding and compassionate world.
Ebert credits her loving family and her late husband, Roger, a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, for inspiring her to center the FECK principles and celebrate regular folks who demonstrate what she’s called transformative values.
“What Roger and I loved about movies was the goodness, because that softens you inside — that’s what I want the FECK Awards to do,” she said. Ebert is the CEO of Ebert Digital, which owns the movie review website RogerEbert.com
The winners — an individual and an organization in each category — stand out among hundreds of nominees selected for embodying one or more of the FECK principles. They were chosen by a board of judges from online submissions at giveafeck.com/awards Ebert said.
The awards — four in all — will be given on Saturday evening at a ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton, Chicago at Water Tower Place.
The ceremony coincides with the Day4Empathy, which marks the anniversary of Roger Ebert’s death. Since 2018, the Day4Empathy reinforces Ebert’s embrace of the universal principles of empathy, humility, compassion and paying acts of kindness forward, Chaz Ebert said.
Honorees from the Chicago area include Riverdale native Jayera Griffin, 22, who is being recognized for compassion.
In May, she’ll graduate from Western Illinois University and become an elementary school teacher in her hometown. Griffin said she started doing community service when she was a toddler. Since she was a teenager, she’s organized free laundry days for her community, so her fellow students could have clean clothes for school. In college, that morphed into her providing free detergent for those washing their clothes.
Her efforts have also included initiatives like organizing CPR and AED training for youths, collecting clothing for seniors, and organizing school supply drives and holiday programs for neighborhood families.
Griffin said her father, Michael, nominated her for the award. The award, she said, is so surreal.
“Once I get there, I’m probably going to start crying — I’m a big crybaby with things like these,” she said.
When asked how to increase the FECK-ness in the world going forward, she responded that staying true to your values is the most important, not what’s online.
“If you’re doing what you believe is right, then that’s the only thing that matters — doing what you can to help someone,” she said.
David Luplow, Jr., 36, is being honored for kindness. Born with Down syndrome, the South Elgin resident saves his money to purchase toys for his local fire district’s Toys for Tots drive (Scooby-Doo puzzles and Hot Wheels featured prominently). His generosity was shown on ABC 7 Chicago this past December.
“His dad and I and his sister are very, very proud of what he does,” Luplow’s mother, Patti, said.
When Luplow is not paying it forward, he’s a fan of baseball and Elvis Presley. He’s learned gardening and life skills at the Rising Lights Project, a nonprofit in St. Charles that assists young adults with cognitive and intellectual disabilities, and at Gigi’s Playhouse in Hoffman Estates.
Ebert is excited to see the honorees in person for the ceremony.
“I want to soften people inside so that they’re willing to maybe help another person,” she said.
Tickets for the FECK Awards are available at giveafeck.com/tickets.
