Stan Cramer, formerly an investigative journalist for KCTV, served as the Gaudeamus Emcee from 2009 to 2016. He and his wife Suzan will be honored as the Angels Among Us award recipients at Gaudeamus 2017.
Emceeing many events can be difficult at best when confronted with rowdy audiences, lengthy, long-winded and sometime boring speakers, video and graphics that add to the length but often don’t complement the evening. But not so with Gaudeamus thanks to the Gaudeamus Committee’s attention to detail in planning the evening, a large group of dedicated volunteers and Board members who help, and attentive audiences that come not to just be entertained but to help kids obtain a Catholic education.
I started emceeing Gaudeamus six or seven years ago and haven’t been disappointed in any of the affairs. Everything is carefully timed and scripted to allow for a leisurely meal and effective flow. Speakers are assigned specific lengths for their presentations and we’ve never had to cut them off.
Graphics and videos are designed to keep the audience involved and informed and to complement the evening’s purpose of raising funds to provide the less fortunate with Catholic school educations.
The emcee’s job is to tie all the elements together and to handle any last minute changes. There haven’t been very many surprises, although last year was a big exception. Surprisingly, the Kansas City Royals were playing in the World Series, something few people thought possible. And one of the games was the night of Gaudeamus. Royal’s fever was at a pitch. How do you handle it? Would people stay home to watch the game? How could we keep the audience updated without it being a distraction? Should we reschedule Gaudeamus?
Well we didn’t reschedule and the audience was larger than ever. In fact it’s grown to well over 1,400 attendees. Everyone pitched in to help us provide regular audio and video updates of the game. While the Royals ended up losing that night, Catholic education won big time with a record level of attendance and donations.
We certainly hope the Royals can get to the World Series again, but we know that with your help our kids will definitely come out winners! Come to Gaudeamus this year and let’s celebrate together.
