Josh Fischel!
We couldn’t get a photo of Josh, so forgive our effort. It’s not even that he’s elusive, it’s that it’s hard to get a picture from someone while maintaining the secrecy of their soon-to-be Volunteer of the Month status. Josh has no pictures on his myspace. The only Josh Fischel we could find on Google Images was some sort of jam-band singer. AND Josh never emailed a picture when we lied and told him we wanted a picture of him that we could Photoshop into the pictures we took of his “Whodunit!” workshop for the newsletter. Yes, we know. We should’ve just taken a picture of him at his workshop, but what can we say? It slipped our minds. But who got the last laugh, Josh, hmmm? Who’s laughing now?
There are a number of reasons we love Josh. When it came to light that one-third of our staff would not be at Revenge of the Book Eaters, our gigantic fundraiser last fall, the flame of panic that arose was quickly doused by Josh’s willingness to step in as stage manager. He’s reliable. He’s trustworthy. He’s punctual. He’s a soft talker.
We love him for all these reasons and more. He comes up with really creative, brilliant workshop ideas. Take “Whodunit!” for example. Josh is shown sitting with the three suspects in the photo at right. In this workshop, Josh gave his young sleuths a mystery to unravel: Erin says she’s gone on maternity leave, but is she? Using Amy as a key witness (“I haven’t seen any baby. How much do you guys know about maternity leave?”), Josh convinced even those who felt they knew Erin best that she was indeed a jewel thief.
Here, we must include one sleuth’s notes on the crime. Our favorite part is “Baby” = Diamond? (Click the photo for a closer look.)
And, quickly: He’s a great tutor, he’s hilarious, and we love talking to him. Also he does cool things like interview people who drive other people across the Mackinaw Bridge. And we think that’s rad.